It is not only during the pandemic, because the current changes in consumers’ behavior and lifestyle will lead to digitalization.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Minister Teten Masduki has expressed the hope that the Smesco Papua Event will serve as a trigger for the digitization of Papuan micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

"I emphasize that being connected to the digital ecosystem is important so that Papuan MSMEs can have digital transformation," he remarked here on Tuesday.

The event, entitled ‘Torang Bisa (We Can)! MSMEs/Small and Medium Industry Upgrading’, was a collaboration between Smesco Indonesia -- a promotion and marketing agency for Indonesian MSME products -- and the Papua provincial government. It was organized as part of attempts to support the implementation of the XX Papua National Sports Week, the minister noted.

The collaboration is expected to help Papua's local MSMEs become successful in the domestic market and ready to compete at the international level, he added.

Currently, the number of MSMEs in the digital ecosystem has reached 15.3 million, or about 23.9 percent of the total number of MSMEs in Indonesia, Masduki noted.

"The number has increased by 7.3 million amid the pandemic, and it is targeted that there will be 30 million MSMEs on digital platforms in 2024," he added.

Furthermore, as per World Bank's research, 80 percent of MSMEs connected to the digital ecosystem had better resilience in the midst of the pandemic, he highlighted.

Hence, digitalization needs to be accelerated, he stressed. "It is not only during the pandemic, because the current changes in consumers’ behavior and lifestyle will lead to digitalization," he added.

In addition, the young generation of Papua will be key for building creativity and technology-based entrepreneurship in future, while digitalization will become a momentum for MSME actors to be connected to multiple modes of access to financing, raw materials, markets, and aggregator partners, he said.

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Translator: Baqir Alatas, Uyu Liman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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