“Let us jointly synergize to develop villages and MSMEs. We are building an ecosystem that allows villages to advance and village-owned enterprises to be independent,” he underlined at a national seminar on “Increasing Entrepreneurship and Village Economic Innovation in Indonesia,” which was followed virtually from Jakarta on Thursday.
According to Sudarto, synergy and collaboration have been shown to have helped maintain the inflation rate in Indonesia at about 3 percent. The central government, regional governments, central and regional inflation control teams, and affiliated stakeholders are coordinating to maintain Indonesia’s inflation rate amid global economic volatility.
He said that inflation is not merely the central bank’s business, but a joint concern for all stakeholders. An example of synergy for addressing inflation is the Ministry of Home Affairs’ weekly network meeting with all regional leaders to coordinate efforts to maintain the inflation rate.
Synergy and collaboration across stakeholders and communities also proved to be vital in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Sudarto noted that Indonesia was among the countries whose COVID-19 handling was the best.
Furthermore, new ways are needed to build and develop more than 74 million villages and 62 million MSMEs in Indonesia, he said.
He urged all parties to synergize for developing MSMEs and villages, as well as overcoming challenges related to innovation, technology, marketing, human resources, financing, management, and institutional aspects because the advancement of MSMEs and villages will impact Indonesia’s development.
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President Joko Widodo earlier highlighted the importance of village development, an effort pursued by the Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood (Parmusi).
“Village development is very important, and it aligns with the government’s program, which builds from the outskirts,” he stated at the opening ceremony of the 2023 National Gathering of Village Islamic Preachers of Parmusi in Cianjur, West Java, on September 26.
According to Widodo, the government has demonstrated its commitment to developing villages by providing village funds for 74,800 villages in Indonesia. As of 2023, the funds have reached about Rp539 trillion (US$33,85 billion).
The village funds have been used to construct 326 thousand kilometers of village roads, 6,400 water tendons to support irrigation, and 14 thousand village markets, he informed.
Meanwhile, the deputy of SMEs at the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Kemenkop UKM), Hanung Harimba Rachman, said that the government is committed to developing the quality of MSMEs by conducting training and building factories to support the downstream industry.
“We create factories to have a similar standard, like in other countries. We also train (the workers to build their) capabilities,” Rachman told ANTARA in Jakarta on September 5.
In the short term, the government has increased downstreaming in the MSME sector with a prepared ecosystem, he said, and cited the furniture industry in Central Java as an example.
The MSME ecosystem has been formed despite the simple factories and varying worker abilities, Rachman pointed out. The government has provided aid through factory building and skills training, he added.
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Translator: Martha, Lutfhia, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
Copyright © ANTARA 2023
