REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LAMPUNG -- Behind a row of hills at the southern tip of Sumatra Island, lies a village that has managed to innovate and sustainably develop local tourism. The village is Kelawi Village located in Bakauheni Subdistrict, South Lampung Regency, Bandar Lampung.

The village, which was newly established in 2000, has a lot of natural, economic, and tourism potential. In fact, now, Kelawi Village is already quite crowded and known by travelers for the beauty of one of its beaches, namely Minang Rua Beach.

Kelawi village has a fairly long coastline, which is 9.8 km long. With its long coastline, Kelawi Village also has a diverse maritime tourism potential.

Not only has exotic beaches, Kelawi Village also has Green Canyon, Underwater Park, Jamara Waterfall, Khaja Saka Waterfall, Batu Alif, and Goa Lalay. There are also jumping spots that can spur adrenaline for travelers who love extreme tourism. The entire beach in Kelawi Village is managed under the supervision of Village Owned Enterprises (BUMDes) Kelawi Mandiri together with Tourist Sadar Group (Pokdarwis).

In addition, Kelawi Village also has a strong agro-tourism attraction. The village is famous for its avocado and banana varieties that have been patented and certified. In fact, the avocado variety is focused on becoming the flagship product of Kelawi Village.

“Through that program, each family was asked to plant two avocado seedlings. To help the nursery, the village has provided its own green house. We did this avocado development massively in order to meet the needs of the market,” said BumDes Kelawi Mandiri Chairman Rian Haikal, in a written statement, Saturday (24/2/2024).

In addition, there are also other agrotourism products such as processed banana and anchovy products. Both products continue to be maximized by MSMEs in Kelawi Village and have a positive impact on the economy.

He added that Kelawi Village has also implemented digitalization to facilitate all transactions in each tourist destination from ticketing and non-cash payment of QRIS BRI at MSME tenants.

“With this digitization, business owners can easily see the summary of financial transactions. They can also see how much money has gone in and out, as well as how much money has been saved,” he said.

Waste Bank Program

With various development potentials and innovations, Kelawi Village was awarded the award as the Green BRiliaN Village 2023. The tourism potential is also maximized by people who are also micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in order to drive the wheels of the economy. Some MSMEs found in Kelawi Village are MSMEs with anchovy snacks and crafts produced from the Waste Bank or Bank Sampah.

“Kelawi Village is working with BRI to solve the waste problem by presenting a Waste Bank. From there, plastic waste from the sea is developed through the Waste Bank,” he said.

Thanks to this cooperation, the economic activity of the people of Kelawi Village also increased. In addition, this program can ultimately promote the cleanliness, safety, and comfort of Kelawi Tourism Village.

“So from processing waste, there is an economic addition from the Waste Bank. And the proceeds from that go into the accounts of each Waste Bank customer and are directly saved in BRI,” he said.

Director of Micro Business BRI Supari, revealed that BRiLian Village is a village empowerment program aimed at generating role models in village development initiated by BRI as a form of development agent in developing villages. By the end of 2023, 3,178 villages have received the BRiliaN Village empowerment.

The BRiliaN Village Program is an empowerment based on village ecosystem with 4 main pillars as the key to successful empowerment indicators, namely sustainability, digitalization, innovation and optimization of Village Owned Enterprises (BumDesa).

“BRI has the concept of end-to-end empowerment of SMEs, i.e. empowerment from the basic phase to the development of a digital-based platform capable of becoming a solution for the development of the MSME ecosystem. This aims to ensure that SMEs are competitive and able to adapt to the market,” Supari said.

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