Minister Encourages MSMEs to Maximize Digital Technology

Tangerang – The Indonesian Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Teten Masduki encouraged micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to maximize the use of digital technology, including by applying cashless payment methods.

"Efforts to encourage MSME players to digitize their business by adopting application-based transactions and cashless payment can help them expand their markets," Minister Masduki said during an MSME event in South Tangerang, Banten on Sunday.

He also invited more start-up companies to participate in the efforts to develop domestic MSMEs.

Minister Marduki then remarked that MSMEs play a crucial role in sustaining the economy of Indonesia, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

Focusing on the culinary MSMEs, Minister Masduki stressed that they have big potential to help the government boost the national economy, added to the fact that the country wields a vast array of typical cuisines that are unique to each of its regions.

For that reason, the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry has continued appealing to MSMEs, marketplaces, and digital payment start-ups to collaborate.

According to Minister Masduki, the main challenge in the efforts to develop MSMEs is finding the proper ways to educate the players on the importance of digital technology, so they can optimize it to expand their access to markets.

"In fact, they (MSMEs) have a very promising opportunity to market their products to the outskirts of big cities as well as disadvantaged, frontier, and outermost regions. They should tap into (marketing) potentials in secondary cities," he explained. 

He also said that by applying digital technology, MSME players can increase their cost efficiency, as they will no longer need to have physical stores to sell and market their products.

The minister also expressed belief that such a step will boost the income of the MSME entrepreneurs, "Merchants will no longer need to rent stores or expensive places. By expanding their markets, they will surely generate higher income," 

Furthermore, he said that the government has so far succeeded in digitizing more than 21 million MSMEs.

However, the government will continue striving to reach the target of transforming 30 million MSMEs by encouraging them to enter the digital market by 2024.

The government is recently working towards expediting digital transformation in order to ensure that MSME actors and the public, in general, will be able to optimize the country's digital economic potential, which is projected to reach IDR 4,531 trillion in 2030.