Empowering Diaspora As Agents, Government Targets SME Products To Enter The US Market

Workers are seen finishing making furniture (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu), and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) seeks to empower the diaspora as promotional agents as well as aggregators in marketing national products.

The Director General of National Export Development (PEN) of the Ministry of Trade Didi Sumedi is aiming for a program to create 500,000 new exporters, mainly from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the utilization of networks owned by the Indonesian diaspora abroad.

"Diaspora has an important role in collaborating with business actors in their countries of residence, especially in the United States (US)," he said in an official statement on Saturday, May 29.

According to Didi, the number of diaspora in the US is recorded at 142,000 people. This figure shows the large potential of the diaspora as a market, promotion agent, and aggregator (connector or intermediary) of Indonesian product businesses.

"The government believes the Indonesian diaspora can be a force to encourage national exports to the US," he said.

On the same occasion, the Director General of America and Europe of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ngurah Swajaya of the Indonesian diaspora can play a role as a provider of information for US citizens to get to know and understand Indonesian products.

"Through the optimal role of the diaspora, it is hoped that it can encourage the acceleration of post-pandemic national economic recovery," he said.

Meanwhile, Chairman of Kadin Rosan P. Roeslani added that the US is a very important market share for Indonesia. For this reason, he emphasized the use of information technology for business actors to expand business expansion but still have low costs.

"To increase the number of SME exporters, we must encourage exporters to better understand digitalization, consistency, and standardization," he said.

For information, the value of trade between Indonesia and the United States in 2020 reached 27.2 billion US dollars with a surplus for Indonesia of 10.04 billion US dollars.

The country nicknamed Uncle Sam is also the top 10 biggest investors in Indonesia, as indicated by an investment commitment of US$ 480.1 million until the close of last year.