Menkop Teten: Consumers Are Tempted By Imported Products Because Of Cheap Prices

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki emphasized the importance of education and literacy for consumers in the digital economy market so as not to be deceived by cheap imported products, but not quality.

"Our consumers in the online market are so easily tempted by imported products because they are cheap, so many of them are deceived by the quality of their products," said Teten as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, September 7.

"I am sure that if our consumers continue to be given good education and literacy, it will increase the marketing of local products that are of higher quality," he said.

Teten admits that the digital economy is growing very rapidly. On the other hand, this also results in increasingly fierce competition with large companies and international e-commerce platforms. "This also poses challenges, especially in predatory pricing practices (the practice of selling goods under capital prices)," said Teten.

He said the dominance of imported products on digital platforms is increasingly worrying, with around 90 percent of the goods sold coming from imports. This, according to him, reduces the opportunity for local MSMEs to compete.

The government, he said, has issued Regulation of the Minister of Trade Number 31 of 2023, which aims to provide comprehensive protection for MSMEs in the era of the digital economy.

According to him, the digital market is still important as an accelerator for the development of MSME businesses.

Citing the MSME Empowerment Report in 2022, digitalization has provided great benefits for improving MSME business performance.

"Sales increased by an average of 84.2 percent, operational effectiveness increased by 73 percent, market expansion reached 62.8 percent, and cost efficiency of 50.7 percent," said Teten.

He hopes that the private sector, such as Grab Indonesia, will remain consistent in prioritizing domestic products, collaborating more closely with MSME players, the government, and other private sectors.

On the same occasion, Managing Director of Grab Indonesia Neneng Goenadi stated that Grab will continue to focus on education and literacy to help MSME players market products on digital platforms that are safe, fast, and able to reach a large market.

The steps taken include holding marketing strategy training.

Neneng said that since 2020 there have been around 2.3 million job opportunities in the Grab application. The company has also distributed IDR 1 trillion to 25 thousand MSME players through the Grab Capital application.

He emphasized that Grab will continue to improve these steps and efforts so that more MSME players can advance to class to be able to play in the export market.