Menkop Teten Encourages Foreign Trade Forum To Expand MSME Market

JAKARTA - Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Teten Masduki encourages more trading forums to be held abroad, in order to expand the opportunities for the MSME export market.

Teten, in a press release from the ministry in Jakarta, Saturday, September 21, said that the government has been proactive in facilitating Indonesian MSMEs to penetrate the global market through the implementation of various foreign trade forums, one of which is a forum at the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, USA, which managed to record export potential of IDR 7 billion.

The export potential was recorded by 13 SMEs facilitated by the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, ranging from the fashion and furniture sector with the largest transaction potential, to the food and beverage sector, as well as startups.

The forum was attended by 120 offline participants and 50 online participants, consisting of Indonesian MSME players, business associations in the US, to potential buyers.

This success is an illustration of how much potential market access in the US for Indonesian MSMEs is. This is also proof that our products have world-class quality and are acceptable in the global market," said Teten, quoted from Antara.

"Furthermore, we will prepare a catalog and product sample to be sent to prospective buyers who are met at trading forums, as well as carry out regular monitoring," he added.

In addition, he also highlighted the crucial role of aggregators in expanding the reach of the Indonesian MSME market in the United States.

He emphasized that in addition to the Indonesian diaspora, market potential is also wide open through cooperation with importers from Asia, especially members of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce (AACC), who have expressed interest in local Indonesian products.

Last year Smesco succeeded in exploring between Indonesian MSMEs and buyers from Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and Switzerland. This year one more destination market country must increase, namely the United States," he said.

Teten hopes that the Indonesian Embassy in Washington and all stakeholders can continue to oversee various requests that come from potential buyers and opportunities for cooperation with various policy makers.

"A close collaboration between the government, business actors, and banks needs to continue to be improved so that efforts to expand the Indonesian MSME market to penetrate the US market will have an impact," he concluded.

The Indonesian Ministry of Trade noted that AS is the second largest trading partner for Indonesia. In the last five years (2019-2023), Indonesia's exports to the US have continued to increase with an average of 9.89 percent per year.

In 2023, the total trade between the two countries reached 34.52 billion US dollars, with the value of Indonesia's exports to the US amounting to 23.25 billion US dollars and Indonesia's imports from the US amounting to 11.27 billion US dollars.

Indonesia's main export products include clothing (aparel), footwear, rubber products, electronics, furniture, and marine products (seafood).