Ministry Of SOEs Cooperates With BPOM, Increase MSME Competitiveness

Cooperation between KBUMN and BPOM (photo: screenshot of YouTube by Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) and the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) have collaborated to support increased independence and competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the field of medicine and food.

The cooperation was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between SOE Minister Erick Thohir and the Head of BPOM Taruna Ikrar. The MoU between SOEs and BPOM is valid for five years.

Erick said that in this collaboration, his party is very ready to consolidate data together with BPOM.

According to Erick, collaboration between institutions in overcoming data problems has been an obstacle in providing solutions to MSME players.

"The problem from us is indeed data, because we don't disclose the data each of them. I am very open to working together to consolidate this data," Erick said in his speech quoted from BPOM YouTube, Tuesday, November 26.

Furthermore, Erick said the Ministry of SOEs already has a long-term program to support MSMEs. One of them is the policy ofandering below Rp. 15 billion is required to be given to MSMEs.

"We ask that all BUMN tenders under Rp. 15 billion must go to MSMEs, there should be no family of directors, grandchildren, companies and foundations. This has been going on for almost 5 years and there are 50,000 MSMEs that have entered this ecosystem," he said.

Erick said that of the 50,000 MSMEs included in the program, the majority or 90 percent of them are engaged in the food sector. In the future, he said he would bring the MSMEs so that they could be certified at BPOM.

"And 90 percent of food, what does that mean? The first program may be completed in the next few months how can everything be certified," he explained.

Erick also plans to ensure that all MSMEs in the BUMN ecosystem can be certified. Both for food products, cosmetics, and processed foods.

As for the roadmaps or roadmaps designed, this program will be aligned with providing funding through state-owned companies such as BRI, Pegadaian, and Mekaar PNM.

"Later on, the next program was delivered, we can choose a Mekaar PNM program that has served 21.2 million women in villages who received loans of Rp. 1 to Rp. 5 million. All of them have been digitally integrated. So for the synchronization, there should also be no problems," he said.

On the other hand, Erick is optimistic that with cross-sectoral collaboration, MSMEs will become the main pillar towards Indonesia's economic independence.

"God willing, we will work concretely on how we will have a roadmap in three months, one year, five years to be able to make the President's direction on how we become an independent country and we also ensure that our MSMEs have a clear foundation, both certificates, funding, markets, and others," he said.