Jakarta (ANTARA) - Women entrepreneurs are playing a strategic role as economic heroes, especially in the cooperatives and SME sectors, Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Teten Masduki, said.

The Sharia economy and women entrepreneurs are growing rapidly, he remarked on Wednesday.

"Indonesia is placed 4th in the halal tourism industry, third in Muslim fashion, and 5th in Sharia finances. For the halal food sector, however, Indonesia is yet to be included in the top 10 list. These [statistics] are based on the State of The Global Islamic Economy Report of 2019-2020," he said.

According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, currently 43.5 percent of MSME players in the non-agricultural sector are women, while data from the ministry shows that of the total 123,048 active cooperatives, 11,458 are women’s cooperatives.

Women are beginning to also play a major role in the creative economy industry, the minister further said. Based on the 2016 Census data, women entrepreneurs are still in the lead, accounting for 54.96 percent of entrepreneurs.

Minister Masduki stressed the government is extending several facilities through the Job Creation Law amid the pandemic and continuing to make efforts to accelerate the recovery and transformation of the cooperatives economy and SMEs.

Transformations are also being made in the formal sector, he said adding, the One Stop Policy is particularly related to the ease of business licensing, including single licensing and single data, he observed. Changes have also been introduced in the digital sector and the use of technology through the development of MSME business incubators, in collaboration with the pillars of the Penta Helix, which include universities, and optimizing aggregators and enablers, he said.

The third transformation is in the value chain based on clusters, areas, and leading commodities, he noted. (INE)



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Translator: Hanni Sofia/Aria Cindyara
Editor: Suharto
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