JAKARTA - The MSME sector has a very important role in the national economy. Moreover, the contribution of MSMEs to gross domestic product (GDP), which currently reaches around 60 percent. However, the contribution to export value is still low.
Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki said that MSMEs are the backbone of the national economy. Apart from its high contribution to GDP. However, the absorption of labor (UMKM) is also very large, namely 97 percent.
However, Teten admitted, currently, the contribution of domestic MSMEs to export activities is still relatively low, only around 14.7 percent.
"This is still lagging behind APEC countries which have even reached 35 percent," he said at a press conference for 500K New Exporters, Monday, April 19.
Teten said that the low contribution of domestic MSMEs to exports was due to various classical problems that had not yet been resolved. Among them are the lack of knowledge of MSME players about foreign markets, and the low quality of UMKM products.
Not only that, said Teten, the lack of production capacity of UMKM, the cost of certification which is not cheap, and logistical problems are also obstacles for MSMEs to become global players.
Seeing the myriad of problems, Teten encouraged the existence of various breakthrough programs to increase the participation of MSMEs in export activities. One of them is the export school program.
"I think (export school) is important so that how MSMEs can become exporters and spur exports," he said.
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