Indonesia encourages more SMEs to become export-ready in 2022

Jakarta, January 7 (ANTARA) - An advisor to the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Minister for productivity and competitiveness Yulius affirmed that his group will encourage more SMEs to become export-ready in 2022. "Through collaboration and synergy with all stakeholders, the export contribution of MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) is expected to increase," he noted during the Digital Export Summit 2022 online event here on Friday. The efforts made by the ministry to encourage more SMEs to become export-ready encompass facilitating export support certificate for SMEs and organizing an export school and export training for SMEs. Other measures involve conducting export financing, working on the export information system, holding international-level exhibition, improving the container shipping schedule, and forging other forms of export-boosting cooperation. Yulius expects the government, business world, and academicians in the Export School to synergize to give rise to many more new exporters from the millennials and the generation z that Indonesia truly needs. Economic transformation to industry 4.0 is deemed to drive the use of technology that shifts the people's consumption pattern to become more online-based. This encourages Indonesia's SMEs to adapt if they are looking to penetrate the export market. In order to encourage the exports of MSMEs' products, the ministry has also conducted synergy for cooperatives and SMEs digitalization by involving ministries and institutions. This is conducted through coordination with the Indonesian Embassy (KBRI) or Indonesian Consulate General, Indonesian Trade Promotion Center, Trade Attaché for market intelligence, overseas promotion, and business matching. In addition, this is realized through collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), a German international company into development cooperation, through Small and Medium Enterprises Station (SMEsta) that belongs to the ministry. Moreover, the ASEAN Access portal is utilized to access information on trade and market at the Southeast Asian level and cooperation with the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) for the development of spice products. According to the data, the nation's exports increased in the second quarter of 2021. Export value in the second quarter of 2021 rose to 22.71 percent as compared to 17.24 percent in the third quarter of 2020. Meanwhile, the export contribution of MSMEs also increased, from 14.37 percent in 2020 to 15.69 percent in 2021. However, this improvement was deemed to be small when compared to several nations, such as Singapore, with 41 percent; Thailand, 41 percent; and China, 60 percent. "We expect the export contribution of our MSMEs to increase to 17 percent in 2024," Yulius stated.