Erick Thohir Wants SOEs To Embrace Startups To Become Nationalists

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of SOEs)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir wants state-owned companies to intervene in the digital sector to embrace startups to become nationalists.

He made this statement in response to many Indonesian startup companies that moved to Singapore and received funding from foreign parties.

"We are intervening as a BUMN to remind future-future Indonesian creators, future-future businessmen in Indonesia to be more nationalistic," he said in a discussion, quoted from Antara, Saturday, November 27.

"We (Indonesia) are big because of our market, not just money. We will do this intervention in digitization," he added.

Erick said the government would launch the Merah Putih Fun program, which is supported by Telkom and Telkomsel to fund Indonesian startup companies.

The program will be launched directly by President Joko Widodo in mid-December 2021.

According to Erick, the conditions for obtaining funding from the program must be Indonesian founders, company operations in Indonesia, and going public in Indonesia as well.

"Going public abroad is okay, but you have to go public in Indonesia first," he said.

Erick further reminded the younger generation to be productive because the population is growing.

The resulting productivity provides an opportunity for Indonesia to become a pop culture country or a country of popular culture.

"Pop culture country can live if the younger generation is also committed to buying its products, there must be partiality," said Erick.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Developed Countries (OECD) estimates that Indonesia's economy will reach US$ 8.89 trillion and become the fourth largest economy in the world by 2045.

The large number of productive age population up to 64 percent of the total population provides the potential as one of the largest markets in the world, many qualified people master technology, are innovative, productive, and are able to transform their economy.