"We appreciate good support and collaboration between the Industry Ministry and work units that engage with industry matters at regional scopes. May this effort be improved to develop small and medium industries, which have been the main driving force of the national economy all along, as well as supporting people's welfare," Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said in a statement received here on Tuesday.
Those industries hold a strategic position in the national economy, particularly in providing employment opportunities, the minister noted. In 2022, as many as 4.4 million small and medium businesses were recorded in Indonesia, which made up 99.7 percent of the total national industry, he added.
"The small and medium business sector employs up to 12.39 million people, or 66.25 percent of the total workforce in the industry sector," he said.
On a different occasion, director general of small and medium industries at the ministry, Reni Yanita, said that Government Regulation Number 19 of 2022 about the deconcentration and assistance duty aims to address the overlap in decentralization.
She delivered the statement during the 2024 National Coordination Meeting on Small and Medium Industries Development, which was hosted in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, some time ago.
"The deconcentration, which has been carried out throughout the time will be adjusted as assistance duty in 2024. Hence, the budget realization for the deconcentration and assistance duty can be focused on the public, particularly industry players," she noted.
Yanita elaborated three focuses of the directorate general's assistance duty program in 2024, which range from extreme poverty eradication, data registry for National Industrial Information System and Domestic Components Rate certifications for small industries, and small industries coaching through the One Village One Product initiative.
The directorate general has also consistently been improving the competitiveness of small and medium industries in pursuing the machine restructurization program, supporting the development of the small and medium industries center, strengthening access to raw materials, facilitating the development of products and their certifications and digitization and Industry 4.0, as well as expanding market access and promotion, she added.
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Translator: Ade Irma Junida, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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