Collaboration with several parties, particularly the private sector, is believed to foster the development of micro-enterprises. This especially applies since several women play diverse roles in micro-enterprises.
"We know that when we speak about small or very micro-businesses, including culinary businesses, there are several women (involved) there, and of course, this is one of our concerns, especially of the government, to continue to support and encourage more advanced efforts," Gunawan noted during a press conference on Friday.
According to Gunawan, women's empowerment aligns with President Joko Widodo's directive to promote entrepreneurship so that women can contribute to the nation's economy.
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"One of the priorities or directives of the president for us is to encourage women's entrepreneurship, so that they can continue to advance and contribute more to this nation and country. As we know from the different types of data, women are usually partaking in small businesses," he affirmed.
Meanwhile, Gunawan also noted that in 2022, Indonesia will host the G20. He explained that one of the issues to be raised was encouraging entrepreneurial leadership or ways in which women can be involved in the business world.
"There are several issues that we bring up and discuss together, including how to get SMEs involved in economic recovery in the post-COVID period; while the second is, of course, related to digitalization," he remarked.
"I think the current period is the digital era. Of course, we are optimistic that women would become more (digitally) literate, especially in their entrepreneurial efforts," he affirmed.
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Translator: Maria Cicilia, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
