Indonesia Initiation Of Special Funding To Increase MSME Financial Accessibility At The ASEAN Forum

BALI - The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM) initiated the establishment of the ASEAN Micro and Small Enterprises Financing Institution to increase the financial accessibility of MSMEs between ASEAN countries.

"Concretely, Indonesia has proposed the establishment of the ASEAN Micro and Small Enterprises Financing Institution to increase the financial accessibility of MSMEs between countries in ASEAN," said Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki to reporters after attending the High Level Ministerial Meeting: Policy Dialogue at the ASEAN Inclusive Business Summit 2023 forum in the Nusa Dua area, Bali, Wednesday, August 23.

Minister Teten said ASEAN needs to collaborate to promote financial institutions for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) because the problems faced by each ASEAN member country regarding SMEs are the same, namely access to financing.

Meanwhile, countries outside ASEAN have many potential funding with abundant amounts that have not been utilized.

However, the government needs to bridge the source of funding with SMEs. Teten emphasized that investors tend to find it more difficult to provide funding to SMEs because there is no guarantee like big businesses and industries.

"We need to build the bridge. Well, that's the concept we offer. This is also what we offer from ASEAN for the G20. Next year, the G20 in India, after that Brazil, then Southeast Asia, so that it becomes a moment in the next few years promoting an inclusive business agenda in ASEAN country and bringing this result to the G20 forum," said Teten.

In addition to proposing special funding for SMEs, Minister Teten also proposed LP-KUKM or Smesco Indonesia as an ASEAN Inclusive Business Center which will function as an MSME service platform from upstream to downstream for all MSMEs in ASEAN countries.

"Smesco Indonesia will provide promotional and marketing services not only for Indonesian SMEs, but also for SMEs for ASEAN member countries in collaboration with relevant institutions in each country," he said.

For your information, ASEAN IB has been going on since 2017 in Manila, Philippines.

This forum is a formal movement to promote inclusive businesses in the ASEAN region.

Starting August 2020, ASEAN already has guidelines for implementing an inclusive business called 'Guidelines for the Promotion of Inclusive Business in ASEAN'.

The 6th ASEAN IB Summit will be held on 23-25 August 2023.

This activity is a form of concern for ASEAN leaders in introducing and implementing inclusive business models in each member country.

There is something new that Indonesia wants to offer as the host of the ASEAN 2023 Summit to accelerate the implementation of an inclusive and sustainable business model.