Contributing 61 Percent To GDP, Jokowi: Naturally MSMEs Get Special Attention

The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi). (Photo: Doc. Setkab)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) contributed 61 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) revenue. It even absorbs 97 percent of the workforce.

"The number of our MSMEs is approximately 65 million or approximately and the contribution to our economic GDP is 61 percent, very large and the absorption of labor in the MSME sector is 97 percent," he said at the opening of BRI Microfinance Outlook 2024, in Jakarta, Thursday, March 7.

Therefore, Jokowi considers it not wrong if MSMEs get special attention given their enormous contribution.

"A very large number is also very large, therefore if we pay special attention to MSMEs, that's not wrong," he said.

Indonesian MSMEs Show Progress

Jokowi also admitted that he was proud of the products of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that continued to show progress. Especially in terms of increasingly modern packaging.

When going to the field, continued Jokowi, he often finds MSME products with modern packaging, even worth exporting.

And what I like is when I go to the field meeting customers, product improvements begin to appear. In addition to financing, the second is product repair, packaging packaging," he said.

Jokowi also showed a packaged product of Crackuk Ranjingan Mama Muda. He said that the packaging of this product was very good from what was previously only packaged using ordinary plastic.

"I just met 5,000 PNM Mekaar customers last week. Our packaging crackers by our MSMEs are now like this (showing products)," he said.

Ranjungan crackers like this packaging, used to be only given regular plastic, sold everywhere, now like this. Can be sold in modern retail retail Hypermart anywhere possible, although not all packaging is like this, but maybe 40 percent of the packaging is like this," he continued.