Take Advantage Of Technology, LPEI And BRI Encourage Young SME Entrepreneurs To Go Worldwide

Illustration (Photo: Doc Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Export Financing Agency (LPEI) together with PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BBRI) invites young entrepreneurs to take advantage of technology so that Indonesian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can advance to class and have high competitiveness quality so that they can penetrate the export market.

Assistant Vice President of Chain & Assets Product Development Division BRI, Silvi Augustia explained that BRI and LPEI collaborate to create a forum for MSMEs to increase the existence of MSMEs so that they can be known more widely in the international market through digital platforms being built by LPEI.

Silvi conveyed that LPEI can provide assistance to BRI MSMEs so that they can provide various good insights to develop their business.

"Through the digital platform that will be launched by LPEI in the near future, it is hoped that it will have a positive impact on BRI MSMEs to advance to international destinations," he explained in his statement, quoted Friday, July 26.

Silvi conveyed that this collaboration is also a form of BRI's support in supporting Indonesia's gold 20245 through MSMEs.

Similarly, the Head of the SME's Advisory Services LPEI Division, Lutpi Ginanjar, explained that Indonesia has great export potential but has not been properly utilized and Indonesia currently does not have a cross-border B2B marketplace that can help SMEs gain market access and export opportunities.

Indonesia needs a new breakthrough to increase exports. Currently, the export figure of SMEs is still at 15.7 percent, this is relatively low in seeing the export rate of SMEs for neighboring countries such as Singapore by 41 percent and tiongkok by 60 percent," he said.

Lutpi said that currently, SMEs and export-oriented business actors face several challenges such as limitations to access international markets, export licensing needs that are not fully understood by SMEs, limited cross-border logistical knowledge and limited access to financing to increase production and capacity.

For this reason, Lutpi said LPEI is currently preparing a marketplace as a platform to encourage Indonesian SMEs to dare to go global. In this breakthrough, SMEs can meet trusted global buyers and carry out safe and easy international transactions.

"This digital platform will cooperate with various export ecosystems by providing supporting services for export-oriented business actors," he explained.

According to Lutpi, one of the flagship features of this marketplace is the curation of sellers. Curation guarantees international buyers that sellers have gone through a checking and validation process, thereby increasing trust and credibility and reducing the risk of fraud by sellers.

Separately, the Head of ITPC Vancouver, Mr. Andri Satria Permana conveyed that the curation process covers several stages ranging from registration, data verification, to assessing selling products.

Therefore, Andri welcomed the digital presence of the LPEI platform which will be launched. The selling curation feature on this platform can minimize the risk of buyers being deceived by sellers. This provides additional protection for buyers when transacting.

"Buyers feel it is safer to transact with sellers who have gone through the verification process, because they know that the seller has been verified and is considered trustworthy", he said.