Jakarta (ANTARA) - Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Teten Masduki has stressed the importance of compiling and integrating accurate data on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by stakeholders.

He delivered the statement during a virtual meeting with Qasir, a startup company that offers cashier or Point of Sale (PoS) applications, supports digital cashier systems, product and inventory management features, sales reports, and digital payments to MSMEs.

"If the data for MSMEs and cooperatives have been well integrated, it will be easier (to achieve) ease, starting from funding or financing, social assistance, to mentoring and training for MSMEs (so) it will be easier and more (effective)," Masduki said, according to a press statement issued in Jakarta on Saturday.

Minister Masduki said Qasir's presence offers a way to build an ecosystem that can help MSMEs to accelerate digitization and optimize funding, and for data integration.

He informed that his ministry is implementing a Single Data Information System for Cooperatives and SMEs, so the provision of data from other stakeholders is very important for supporting the system.

"The number of MSMEs is very large, so the data moves dynamically. We can start collaborating with Qasir for data collection. Hopefully, we can also cooperate with other stakeholders," the minister said.

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CEO of Qasir, Michael Liem, said that the distribution data the company possesses are quite relevant. However, the level of digital adaptation differs from one region to another, especially outside Java and Bali, he noted.

"But we can confirm that from a business unit perspective, we can say that the Qasir data ecosystem is quite valid. One interesting thing that we want to explore with the Cooperatives and SMEs Minister is that there are 62 million MSMEs, which still have many sub-categories under it, for example, farmer cooperatives and others," he elaborated.

To date, 900 thousand entrepreneurs have joined Qasir, he said. The entrepreneurs are spread across 514 cities, he informed. They have accounted for 119 million transactions that have generated a total of Rp14 trillion, he added.

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Translator: M Baqir I A, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Suharto
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