Papua is one of the provinces in Indonesia that directly borders another country, namely Papua New Guinea. The outermost area of Papua that directly borders Papua New Guinea is Keerom Regency. There are five districts in the regency, namely Towe District, Waris District, Web District, East Arso District, and Yaffi District. The economic activities carried out by the people living in the five districts are monitored by the Papua Provincial Government through the Border Management and Foreign Cooperation Agency. The people in the five outermost districts of Papua were given seminars with the aim of increasing the capacity of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to be able to carry out economic activities smoothly and be able to achieve economic prosperity in the future.
Papua Province has established foreign cooperation with Papua New Guinea through a sister city between Jayapura and Vanimo. In 2024, the Papua Provincial Government wants to invite sister city cooperation with Papua New Guinea through Keerom Regency, which is the outermost district located in the border area. The form of cooperation that is being tried to be built is economic cooperation. Therefore, the local government began to seek cooperation by first preparing human resources in this case the community in Keerom Regency who in their daily lives are Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises actors. In addition to the community on the border which is included in the territory of Indonesia, a similar seminar is planned to be held by inviting business actors who are on the border in the Papua New Guinea region.
The capacity building activity for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises actors initiated by the Border Management and Foreign Cooperation Agency was carried out by providing direct assistance, namely the delivery of products that can be used in community economic activities and also providing information related to how economic activities between countries can be carried out by communities on the border. The economic cooperation established between the regional governments of Papua Province and Papua New Guinea has the same goal, namely community welfare and in this border matter, of course, what is expected is an increase in community welfare in the border areas of the two countries.
The number of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises actors who attended the economic capacity building seminar for border communities reached 30 economic actors. This number represents five districts on the border between the two countries. The hope of holding an increase in economic capacity is that the people on the border can implement the knowledge and information obtained during the seminar and also get assistance from the local government to be able to smoothly carry out economic activities. In the future, people on the border of the two countries are expected to be able to work together with each other with the same goal of improving community welfare.
