25.2 Million MSMEs Go Digital Until December 2023, Kemenkop UKM: Reseller Dominates

ILLUSTRATION BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM) noted that as many as 25,292,701 MSMEs have been present on the e-commerce platform until December 2023. The government targets that this year as many as 30 million MSMEs can be onboarded to digital platforms.

This means that the Kemenkop UKM still has the task of facilitating 4,707,299 MSMEs to go digital.

"As of December 2023, as many as 25,292,701 MSME actors or 39.52 percent of the total MSMEs have been present on the e-commerce platform or the equivalent of 84.3 percent of the target," said the Special Staff of the Minister for Creative Economic Empowerment at the Coordinating Ministry for SMEs Fiki Satari in a written statement, Saturday, August 3.

Fiki said, until now MSMEs that have been onboarding to the digital market are more dominant in resellers than MSME producers.

Thus, Fiki said there needs to be a commitment from the government to support the birth of MSMEs in the production sector (real sector) in the midst of massive development of digital technology. Thus, MSMEs are increasingly competitive and sustainable.

"From this target, the Kemenkop UKM hopes that the number of MSME producers can continue to grow. Thus, it is able to contribute more to the national economy, especially in job creation," he said.

By digitizing, Fiki assesses that MSMEs have a great opportunity to continue to increase creativity and product innovation so that they can compete on digital platforms.

"We want the digital economy to produce MSMEs in the productive and real sectors because this can create new economic resources. With innovative business models combined with digitalization, our MSMEs will grow quality," he said.

He added that the huge potential of the digital economy with a value of Rp.877 trillion must be ensured that MSMEs get their portion.

Therefore, said Fiki, the presence of various e-commerce platforms must be ensured that the products traded in them are local products or not imported goods. This effort is needed as a form of protection for MSMEs from the invasion of imported products because it has the potential to kill local businesses.

"This is our note that the digital economy is accepted by whom. So, taking sides on this e-commerce platform is needed so that regulations need to be strengthened," he said.