The Retno Marsudi-Sri Mulyani Duet Will Open The Go Global MSME Road

The ranks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took a photo together with the ranks of the Ministry of Finance (Photo: Andry Winanto/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu) is known to have just reached a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) regarding support for achieving economic diplomacy interests.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that the Ministry of Finance has resources, capacity and data in the financial sector. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has diplomacy infrastructure and foreign networks.

"So, we don't run alone, we complement each other and join forces," he said at the signing ceremony for the cooperation at the Pancasila Building, Jakarta on Monday, August 14.

According to Retno, this synergy has an important position in the midst of a global situation that is not good. This initiative is also in line with President Joko Widodo's message to work without business as usual.

"The important point of our cooperation is about MSMEs, to encourage MSMEs to go global. We understand, Mr. President pays great attention to MSMEs as the backbone of the Indonesian economy," he said.

Retno explained that Indonesia is the country with the highest number of MSMEs in ASEAN. However, he noted that the contribution of the people's sector's business was only 15 percent, while Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand were much larger than Indonesia.

"Of course, through this memorandum of understanding, the state and the government are present through strengthening policies in supporting MSMEs, for penetration into international markets," he said.

Retno added that his party would ensure the optimization of embassy offices and representatives abroad. The strategy is considered quite crucial in providing information, including from the aspect of entry licensing to the market segmentation to be worked on.

"Meanwhile, in the long term, we must have an evaluation mechanism for our work program. This must be based on clear criteria and indicators, such as increasing the value of exports and state revenues," he said.

"In the future, we must expand this collaboration with other relevant ministries/agencies for us to form one large strategy for Go-Global MSMEs, starting from capacity development, financing, production, to product delivery," he said.

On the same occasion, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani revealed that human resources (HR) in the two agencies could exchange experiences and provide up-to-date knowledge about global developments. It is believed that the state treasurer is quite important in an effort to formulate strategic policies for the government.

"What is clear is that we must safeguard Indonesia's interests in the future without confrontation," he stressed.