This Is How The Ministry Of Industry Makes Small And Medium Industries Enter The Global Market

The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) continues to support and strive for small and medium industry players (IKM) to be able to advance to class until they are able to penetrate the global market.

One of the strategies implemented is optimizing cultural values for the development of unique and identical national creative industry competitiveness.

The Director General of Small and Medium Industries (IKMA) of the Ministry of Industry, Reni Yanita, revealed that Indonesia is a country rich in competent human culture and resources, so this opportunity should be maximized to achieve export opportunities for creative IKM actors.

This is reflected in the large number of creative economy business actors who, according to the 2020 Creative Economic Statistics Report of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), are estimated to reach 16 million people.

Meanwhile, based on data from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, craft and fashion sub-sectors are among the largest contributors to the creative economy sector, both in terms of added value to the economy and export achievements.

"So, the fashion and craft industries that are mostly involved by IKM players need to continue to be developed and driven by their abilities," said Reni as quoted from her written statement, Tuesday, May 13.

Reni said the fashion and craft industries have the potential for an export market with quite promising prospects.

Indonesian creative industry products have proven to be in demand by the international market.

"We support IKM through various programs, such as international exhibitions, increased management, product standardization to engine and equipment restructuring," he said.

According to Reni, one of the efforts that has been made by her party is through a machine and equipment restructuring program for IKM, which is a facilitation of refunds of 25-40 percent of the purchase price of machinery and new production equipment by IKM.

With this program, IKM is assisted in capital and gets incentives to rejuvenate machinery and equipment.

"The machine that has been purchased can also improve the quality, capacity and variant of the products produced and the funds returned can be allocated for the purchase of supporting machines and other business purposes," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of utilizing cultural values in export strategies.

Products that raise local cultural wealth authentically have their own charm for global consumers.

"Especially if the cultural value is able to acculturate with foreign culture without leaving the characteristics of Indonesia, of course this is interesting and can contribute to promoting Indonesia's distinctive values in the international world," explained Reni.

Reni added, one example of this success was shown by Sweda IKM, which is a silver craftsman IKM from Kotagede, Bantul, Yogyakarta.

Sweden is one of the recipients of the engine and equipment restructuring program in 2024.

Sweden is proposing a reimbursement for purchasing a 3D printer machine to support the custom design and accessories production process in a more precise and efficient manner.

Sweden combines the philosophy of Indonesian culture with the popular cultural elements of the United States in its products, so that it successfully exports 90 percent of its products to the country.

Through the engine and equipment restructuring program, Sweda modernizes its machinery and production line equipment, so that it becomes more efficient in meeting the demand for custom products and their competitiveness increases.

"With more modern technology support, IKM players are expected to improve product quality, production efficiency and wider market access, including the export market," he said.

In addition to capacity building and quality, he continued, the Ministry of Industry also emphasized the importance of IKM players to be able to expand networks in order to gain new insights and access to market segments that want to buy their products.