Palembang, South Sumatra (ANTARA) - Infrastructure limitations pose challenges for Indonesia in digitizing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), even though the community's interest in digital transactions continues to increase, an official from Bank Indonesia (BI) said.

Head of the MSME Development and Consumer Protection Department of Bank Indonesia, Yunita Resmi Sari, said that until now internet penetration rates in Indonesia has only reached 76.8 percent, ranked 15th in Asia, because there are still many remote areas that are unreachable.

Sari, at the Digitalization Talk event held by the South Sumatra Representative Office of BI here on Thursday, noted that internet infrastructure availability and internet speed in regions in Indonesia are still unequal.

Apart from the unequal availability of infrastructure, Indonesia is also still facing another challenge in the increasing cases of cybercrime.

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MSME players who are not digitally literate are at higher risk of becoming victims of cybercrime.

"For cybercrime, regulators anticipate crimes by making regulations and monitoring from upstream to downstream to protect MSME players and the public in digital transactions," she said.

She admitted that it is not an easy matter to digitize MSMEs, because only 21 percent of them have utilized digital platforms in Indonesia. In addition, the digital literacy index of MSME players is still categorized as medium.

According to Sari, the situation is also caused by the lack of digital talent among MSMEs.

She also said that some MSME players still have low interest in competing.

For that reason, BI, in developing the digitization of MSMEs, applies three policy pillars, including corporatization, capacity and access to financing, in collaboration with ministries and agencies.

So far, BI has developed e-farming (utilization of digital technology in agriculture), e-commerce (expansion of MSME marketing through digital marketing and global marketing channels), e-financial support (digital application for MSMEs for financial reports) and e-payments (digital payment facility for MSMEs).

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Translator: Dolly Rosana, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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