We did not think that our SMEs would be able to produce spare parts, but they think otherwise."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), along with a number of Japanese entities, is preparing a cooperation platform aimed to further develop Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in both the countries and support each other.

Director of the Chamber Rosan Roeslani said that the platform will combine the databases of Indonesian and Japanese SMEs to then be matched up in a partnership, in order to increase the quality of their businesses.

The platform that contains SME information from both countries will be centered in a business matching site named Trade Tie up Promotion Program (TTPP), which will be operated by Japan External Trade Organization (Jetro) as well as J-GoodTech (Japan Good Technology-Monozukuri), operating under the Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation Japan (SMRJ).

"They already have the platform and there are 18,700 SMEs recorded in their database, whilst the Chamber has only noted about 16,000 of them. That is one of the areas where we would like to combine our efforts with Japan, where we would also like to re-record the data with the format they have given us in order to synchronize everything," he said.

Rosan also mentioned that the cooperation would contribute to increasing trade and investment activities among Small and Medium businessmen and open partnership possibilities for Indonesian and Japanese SMEs.

Other than provision of a database platform for SMEs, the Chamber, along with Jetro, will also establish an Indonesia-Japan Business Matching Support Desk to sustain the SME partnership between the two countries.

The desk will officially start operating on November 1 and, each country involved will send a delegate to provide information about the partnership.

"There will be a face-to-face meeting once every few months to facilitate the cooperation between the Japanese SMEs and our local ones," he reiterated.

The program, that has been prepared since the last eight months, will be opened free of charge for all businessmen, including SME operators.

"There will be no charge at all and this week, we will start vigorously disseminating the information about it," he said.

Although it is not specific for a particular sector, Rosan said that Japan is showing potential interest in the manufacturing process, in order to sustain their automotive businesses in Indonesia.

According to their observation, the production of one single motor vehicle can involve more than 3,000 SMEs.

"We did not think that our SMEs would be able to produce spare parts, but they think otherwise. They believe that our SMEs have the ability to sustain the automotive industry," he added.

Additionally, Daiki Kasugahara, President Director of Jetro in Jakarta, said that they are focused on delivering tangible business results, in order to provide significant contributions towards the trade between Indonesia and Japan.

His office targets 2,000 SMEs to be registered in the Business Matching Support Desk by 2020.

Kasuhagara believes that the efforts to enhance SMEs are done to support the development of their businesses in Indonesia.

"Through this activity, we would also like to support President Jokowis Nawa Cita and at the same time support local Indonesian companies with immense potentials in the Japanese market," he concluded.

(Reported by Ade Irma Junaida/Uu.KR-ARC/INE/KR-BSR/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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