We will facilitate support to SMEs, including the onboarding to the digital ecosystem
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The facility allowing micro-enterprises to promote their products in public spaces, such as stations and airports, is aimed at accelerating business digitization, an official from the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs) said.

"We will facilitate support to SMEs, including the onboarding to the digital ecosystem," deputy for micro business at the ministry, Eddy Satriya, affirmed at the inauguration of Mini Food Hall Olah Oleh Umi at Bandung Station, West Java, on Monday.

In West Java, 26.2 percent of the 4,545,874 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are actively using e-commerce to market their products, he informed.

Meanwhile, on the national scale, the number of MSMEs using e-commerce has increased by 9.9 million, reflecting a growth of 124 percent compared to the pre-pandemic period and taking the total number of MSMEs using e-commerce to 17.9 million.

In addition to accelerating business digitization, the presence of micro-enterprises in public spaces is aimed at protecting them from big brand monopoly.

The provision of promotion sites to 30 micro business tenants from the culinary and handicraft sectors from April 21 to 27, 2022, is the result of collaboration between the West Java provincial government, state-run railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), as well as digital platforms Gojek and Tokopedia.

Satriya reiterated the importance of supporting easy access to promote MSMEs in strategic areas of public infrastructure such as stations, airports, terminals, and shopping areas.

"Considering, one of the problems of MSMEs is the limited tools of promotion for the products they produce," he said.

The ministry has taken several strategic steps to assist in business promotions at public facilities, including dealing with landowners, providing product promotion display rooms, exhibition spaces, and a payment digitization system for MSMEs.

Meanwhile, chairman of the West Java Regional Crafts Council (Dekranasda), Atalia Praratya Ridwan Kamil, said that MSME players should be given space and opportunity to promote their products in many public spaces.

"Besides encouraging MSME products with high competitiveness, MSME players could also become more confident and open a wider market," she remarked.

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Translator: M Baqir Idrus A, Resinta S
Editor: Sri Haryati
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