Sri Mulyani: Small Business Development Efforts Mean Strengthening The Indonesian Economy

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (second from the right) at the 2022 UMi Festival in Jakarta (Photo: Capture the Youtube screen of the Government Investment Center)

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani stated that the government will continue to use state financial instruments in the state budget to protect the community and the economy from various global economic challenges.

According to him, this includes maintaining the recovery of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical dynamics that have had an impact on inflation and a very drastic increase in interest rates.

The State Budget instrument in maintaining the community's economy and continuing to maintain recovery there are various kinds of things. One of the things that is done is that we set the tax funds into investment funds managed by the Government Investment Center (PIP) for the benefit of small business actors," he said at the 2022 UMi Festival in Jakarta, Thursday, December 15.

The Minister of Finance explained that investment funds managed by PIP had reached IDR 24 trillion. This amount is used to provide assistance to 6.9 million MSME players throughout Indonesia.

Through the huge needs of MSMEs, the Minister of Finance said the amount of funds was inadequate. Therefore, the government does not only depend on the allocation distributed by PIP.

For MSMEs, we provide support through People's Business Credit (KUR). More than IDR 370 trillion is channeled through banks, especially Himbara banks. This was also received by more than 12 million small actors," he said.

The two instruments, continued the Minister of Finance, are the government's efforts to try to overcome the problem of MSMEs in terms of access to financing or capital. Small actors including farmers are very vulnerable to capital needs with low interest rates.

In addition to helping access capital, the state also provides standardized assistance for MSMEs to maintain their business. The Minister of Finance explained that many MSME actors admit that the role of this companion is very important.

"Strengthening small businesses is synonymous with strengthening the Indonesian economy. We must continue to maintain economic resilience, especially when faced with various possibilities and shocks. So that the resilience and development of the economy and small business actors in particular, must continue to be the focus of our collective attention," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.