"Women play a quite significant role in national economic growth, as 43 percent of the formal SMEs are owned by women and contribute to 9.1 percent of the total GDP," Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Bintang Puspayoga told the press on the sidelines of the Second G20 Empower Plenary Meeting here on Wednesday.
One of the forms of support that continued to be provided by the ministry is increasing the number of advocates to provide guidance to women SME entrepreneurs spread across the country.
"The number of advocates continues to grow, from 26 to 60," she added.
Puspayoga noted that those advocates will continue to assist women SME entrepreneurs and evaluate their progress.
The minister remarked that so far, the advocates have initiated 142 mother- and children-friendly villages by continuously providing assistance. She expressed optimism that the number would continue to rise in line with the increasing number of women SME entrepreneurs.
The minister added that one form of assistance provided by the private sector in empowering women SME entrepreneurs was offered by telecommunications company XL Axiata, with its program called Sisternet, which has targeted almost all regions in Indonesia.
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Chair of G20 Empower and Director & Chief Strategic Transformation & IT Officer of XL Axiata, Yessie D. Yosetya, stated that the focus of the meeting aligned with the big theme of Indonesia's 2022 G20 Presidency of "Recover Together, Recover Stronger" and the second main theme of the 2022 G20 Empower of Encouraging the Role of MSMEs owned by women as an economic driver.
"The main agenda of the second G20 Empower meeting is to discuss the urgency of the role of women in MSMEs as drivers of economic growth. The government and private businesses need to encourage further implementation of policies and practices to support women-owned MSMEs in facing all the existing challenges," Yosetya emphasized.
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Translator: Ahmad Wijaya, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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