Do not let our digital market economy be controlled by foreigners

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki wants Indonesian MSMEs to host in their own country, including in digital economy.

According to Teten, Indonesia has potential digital economy Very large. Even in 2025, the value is estimated to reach Rp. 1,800 trillion.

“Don’t let our digital market economy be controlled by foreigners,” he said in the Coffee Talk event of MenkopUKM and Lewi’s Organics as well as the inauguration of 200 Master Mentors of SIGAP UMKM, as quoted in a press release, Thursday (11/3/2021).

“I think there are many Indonesians who have expertise and help MSMEs develop and make this a national movement, a solidarity movement for the awakening of MSMEs through volunteer mentors,” he continued.

The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs will develop a voluntary desk concept and invite experts to become mentors to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

He said, this model of mentoring by mentors is one way to accelerate MSMEs into the digital sector as soon as possible.

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This effort was carried out by KemenkopUKM in collaboration with Mastercard Academy 2.0 through the MicroMentor Indonesia program which has currently succeeded in recruiting 10 thousand assistants and reaching 40 thousand MSMEs.

“MSMEs are currently the cornerstone of the economy in the midst of a pandemic. Digitalization is a necessity for the growth of our MSMEs in the future. MSMEs need assistance from mentors to develop faster,” said Minister of Cooperatives and UKM, Teten Masduki.

MicroMentor Indonesia will train and assist MSMEs on how to use them through the MicroMentor Indonesia platform, which is integrated with the KemenkopUKM online training platform at edukukm.id.

Teten hopes that this program can accelerate the growth of new entrepreneurs. The number of Indonesian entrepreneurs today is still relatively small compared to other countries, which is only 3.7 percent.

“In 2024, we are targeting it to be 4 percent. Various methods are carried out not only through mentoring but also with venture capital schemes, for example, “he said.

One of the business activities that receive special attention in this program is farmers who produce cashew nuts in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). There the farmers who are members of the cooperative are accompanied by mentors from Mercy Corps Indonesia together with local agriculture business actors PT Profil Mitra Abadi (PMA) through Lewi’s Organics products.

Teten appreciates the efforts made by PMA in NTT. He admitted. Currently, there are still many farmer cooperatives that produce their agricultural products traditionally. This will be encouraged by KemenkopUKM to enter into modern technology so that the products produced have global competitiveness.

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