Celiss: The Digitalization Target Of 30 Million MSMEs Can Be REALized Faster Than Government Predictions

Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Economist and Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira is optimistic that the government's target to digitize 30 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by 2024 will be realized soon.

"The possibility of this target being achieved by the end of 2023," Bhima Yudhistira said at a press conference with the Warehouse in the Kebayoran Baru area, South Jakarta, Thursday, January 19.

According to Bhima, the pandemic conditions over the last two years have changed the way MSME players in Indonesia sell from the old (manual) to digital method.

"In fact, previously there was not too focused on digitizing, because for example I have a shop and visitors come by themselves. So, why enter the online platform," he said.

"However, economic conditions (due to the pandemic) have made MSME players look for which raw materials or goods to be sold can have the most competitive prices. To achieve that competitiveness, like it or not, they look for everything online, end up there," he added.

He said, changing consumer behavior is also one of the factors that requires MSMEs to enter the digital ecosystem.

This is because consumer kimi prefers to find and buy goods online from mobile phones rather than having to go to offline stores.

"People order these items through online platforms or WhatsApp. Although, for example, the distance is only 100 meters, it's not wrong. So, like it or not, business owners must also be digitally literate," he said.

Bhima also said, based on the results of the "B2B FMCG Marketplace Indonesia Outlook 2023" by CELIOS supported by the Gudang Ada B2B ecosystem service provider, there is about 60 percent of MSMEs that have implemented digitization in customer supplier and outreach searches.

Another factor, he said, was regarding payment methods which began to shift from cash to cashless, either through virtual account transfers to QRIS.

"There is a need in terms of urgent consumers, let's go, we have already paid 2023, it's still cashless, let's cashless. By fulfilling that, services to consumers will also be better. So, the pressure is what makes MSMEs have to adapt faster," he said.