Sri Mulyani Emphasizes The Important Role Of Women In The MSME Sector: They Are The Drivers Of Our Economy Today And In The Future

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (center) when looking at the results of MSME production (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, assessed that women are very important actors in the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector. According to him, this is reflected in data released by the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Kemenkop UKM) which shows that the majority of MSME actors are women.

It is stated that 52 percent of the 63.9 million micro-enterprises in Indonesia are women. At the small business level, 56 percent of the 193,000 small businesses owners are women. Meanwhile, for medium-sized businesses, 34 percent of the 44,700 business actors are women.

"So we see that these data are women who are really very important and even major actors at the small and micro levels", she said as quoted on the official website, Monday, January 10.

The Minister of Finance added that MSMEs have a big contribution to the Indonesian economy. He said MSMEs contributed 60 percent of the total national economy and 97 percent of the creation and absorption of job opportunities.

"MSMEs are not just activities carried out by many actors, especially women, but they are also the driving force and the backbone of our economy today and in the future", she said.

For information, at the G20 Summit meeting in Rome last October 2021, President Joko Widodo said that Indonesia has MSME empowerment programs, such as Ultra Micro (UMi) financing, people's business loans (KUR), to digitalization programs.

Meanwhile, another government support is provided through investment in digital infrastructure development to all corners of the region to encourage the development of technology-based entrepreneurship. In addition, the government also provides convenience in the field of licensing through online single submission (OSS).

“If MSMEs want to establish a company more formally so they can get even greater access to capital like in banking. I hope this is also used by women entrepreneurs at the micro level so that if they have a formal business license, they will get stronger access to capital”, she explained.

To note, the government through the APBN instrument claims to continue to try to give sides to micro and small business actors, especially those driven by women.

“The government uses various policies to be able to help as much as possible and all segments need it. This is all done for the community, especially ultra-micro business players so that they can get access to capital", closed the Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani.