Govt to set up centers of entrepreneurship at campuses

"We must change the paradigm from job seekers to job makers, so that there will be more job opportunities," Agus Muharram said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government through the Cooperatives and Small-Medium Scale Businesses Ministry, will soon set up centers of entrepreneurship at university campuses in Indonesia.

"The establishment of centers of entrepreneurship at campuses is a short-term strategy to produce new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Agus Muharram, the ministry`s deputy for human resource development affairs, said here Monday.

Both short and long term strategies were needed to produce much more entrepreneurs in order to eradicate poverty, to reduce unemployment rate and improve the people`s welfare, he said.

"We must change the paradigm from job seekers to job makers, so that there will be more job opportunities," he said.

The centers of entrepreneurship at campuses could play a role in changing the paradigms, he said.

It would also have functions to educate and train students to become entrepreneurs and provide consultations for those who need advices on entrepreneurship.

For the long term strategy, entrepreneurship is expected to be included in the university curricula nation-wide.

The number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia is expected to increase by at least 500,000 within the next four years.

Future entrepreneurship programs would be designed to produce creative, innovative and globally competitive entrepreneurs, Dr Handito Joewono, head of the coordinating economic ministry`s national coordinating team of creative entrepreneurship promotion, said here Monday.

"Within the next four years, we hope there will additional new 500,000 entrepreneurs in Indonesia," he said.

He also hoped that by 2025 the number would multiply to five million entrepreneurs.

Currently, the number of Indonesian entrepreneurs is around 0.24 percent of the country`s total population.

Sociologist David Mc Cleiland said, that to develop a country`s advanced economy, the number of entrepreneurs should be at least two percent or 4.8 million entrepreneurs for the total Indonesian population.

As comparison, the number of entrepreneurs in Singapore is 7.2 percent of its total population, Malaysia 2.1 percent, Thailand 4.1 percent, South Korea 4.0 percent, and the United States 11.5 percent.

It would take up to the year 2030 for Indonesia to have 4.8 million entrepreneurs or 2 percent of its current total population, he said.
(Uu.F001/HAJM/P003)

Editor: Guntur Mulyo W
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