A multinational technology company signed a collaboration with Indonesia’s Surakarta City Government in preparing an export training programme for MSMEs.
Currently, around 40 thousand MSME players in Surakarta have registered with the tech company’s e-commerce platform, with five thousand of them having active export stores. The tech company assessed that the Surakarta players have great potential. This means that there is room for growth for local traders who produce their businesses to increase production capacity and quality to export.
This industrial collaboration with the Surakarta city government is carried out in the form of mentoring or education from upstream to downstream on five main focuses, namely sustainable education, distribution of funding, online marketing, payment and logistics systems, and exports.
The tech company stated that this collaboration is a form of support in developing Indonesian MSMEs. They aim to provide education and assistance that can hone the competence and knowledge of MSMEs to realise exports. They added that through this collaboration, the company is targeting a total of 10,000 new exporters from Surakarta MSME players by the end of 2021, as well as making Surakarta City a blueprint or pilot city for the first MSME export education.
In addition to the expansion of the reach provided by online platforms, this series of educational and training programmes can also help MSME players learn to ensure that all orders are fulfilled quickly and while maintaining the quality of their products. The tech company would also build a physical training ground for MSMEs, in addition to its existing campus programme which has been routinely carried out in Surakarta with hundreds of participating sellers.
The Mayor of Surakarta welcomed this collaboration which, according to him, would provide a forum for MSME players in Indonesia to be able to continue to develop, especially in exporting products. With the increasing number of access and education provided for MSMEs to sell online, even to export their products, it can make them optimistic about running their business, especially during this pandemic.
This collaboration with the Surakarta City Government is in line with other strategic steps taken by the tech company to improve the quality of Indonesian MSME players. Its export programme has succeeded in increasing daily transactions on its online platform by up to sixfold between June 2020 and January 2021.
In February 2021, 1.5 million products from local traders were successfully exported to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The company’s “From Local to Global” Export Programme will also continue to be developed by adding new export ranges, not only in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand and Vietnam but also in South America, namely Brazil.
In supporting the government’s programme to advance MSMEs, the tech company is also collaborating with export schools to produce 500,000 new exporters by 2030. This is also supported by the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, through utilising e-commerce platforms, Indonesian MSMEs will be able to reap several benefits. One of which is financial where they may double their revenue. Technology allows faster transactions, therefore, providing an opportunity to rapidly increase their revenue as well.
As reported, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics encourage the MSMEs to expand their businesses and sell on digital platforms. Selling online will greatly improve the work patterns of these businesses, expanding their reach by utilising modern technologies.
Hopefully, increased cooperation between the government and the business sector would also increase the competitiveness level of Indonesia on a global scale.
