Anthony Leong: Young Entrepreneurs Must Dare to Go International

JAKARTA - The candidate for the General Chair of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (BPP Hipmi) Anthony Leong, encourages the strengthening of synergy between Hipmi and Junior Chamber International (JCI) as a strategic step to expand the global network and open international opportunities for young Indonesian entrepreneurs.

According to Anthony, in the midst of increasingly competitive global economic competition, young Indonesian entrepreneurs are not enough to be strong in the domestic market, but must also be able to build international networks, expand export markets, and enter global business chains.

"In the future, young Indonesian entrepreneurs must dare to go international. Because today's business world is no longer limited by geographical areas, but is determined by connectivity, collaboration, and global networks," said Anthony Leong in his statement.

Anthony explained that JCI is the largest youth leadership and entrepreneurship organization in the world which was established in 1915 and currently has a network in more than 100 countries with hundreds of thousands of active members in various business, professional, social, and government sectors.

According to him, many world figures were born from the JCI ecosystem, ranging from business leaders, ministers, regional heads, to heads of state.

He added that JCI is also known to have global relations and collaborations with various international institutions including the United Nations (UN) on issues of youth, sustainable development, entrepreneurship, leadership, and sustainable development goals (SDGs).

"JCI is not just a regular networking organization. JCI is a very strong global ecosystem of leadership and entrepreneurship. Many world leaders and international entrepreneurs have come from the JCI network," he said.

Anthony assessed that JCI's main strength lies in international connectivity, cross-country business networks, leadership development, and global collaboration access that can open up great opportunities for young Indonesian entrepreneurs to develop in the international market.

According to him, the synergy between Hipmi and JCI can create many concrete opportunities such as international business matching, expansion of export access, investment promotion, exchange of young entrepreneurs, to the development of global leadership capacity for Hipmi members.

"If Hipmi is strong in the country and JCI is strong in the international network, then the synergy of the two can be an accelerator for the birth of Indonesian young entrepreneurs who are global," said Anthony.

He also emphasized that Indonesia has a great opportunity to become a new economic power in the world because it is supported by demographic bonuses, a large domestic market, and the increasingly strong growth of young entrepreneurs.

However, according to him, the biggest challenge at this time is how to make young Indonesian entrepreneurs able to rise in class and have global competitiveness.

"Many of our young entrepreneurs have good products and high creativity, but still lack access to international networks. Therefore, Hipmi must start building a stronger global connectivity," he said.

Anthony said that in the future, Hipmi should not only be a domestic networking organization, but should develop into an internationalization platform for young Indonesian entrepreneurs.

"Hipmi must be a bridge so that young Indonesian entrepreneurs are not only local players, but are able to be part of the global economic chain," he said.

He hopes that the synergy between Hipmi and JCI can produce more young Indonesian entrepreneurs who are able to bring national products into the world market while strengthening Indonesia's position in the global economy.

"If Indonesian young entrepreneurs are connected globally, then the Indonesian economy will also become much stronger," concluded Anthony Leong.