"Together With Friends - UMi Bangkit" Campaign Strengthens Ultra Micro Ecosystems In Several Regions In Indonesia

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Government Investment Center (PIP), the Ministry of Finance launched the "Together Friends - UMi Bangkit" campaign to encourage the improvement of the loan ecosystem for business actors, especially the Ultra Micro (UMi) business segment.

The launch of this program is carried out to encourage small, medium, and micro businesses to survive during the pandemic. During this pandemic, almost 50 percent of MSME business actors were forced to close their businesses due to the erosion of business capital which was not accompanied by an increase in demand.

The Director of Investment Management System of the Directorate General of Treasury, Ludiro, today, Wednesday 1 September, attended the launch of the "Bersama Sahabat - UMi Bangkit" campaign with the President Director of the Government Investment Center (PIP), Ririn Kadariyah. Ludiro conveyed the message from the Director General of Treasury Hadiyanto that this campaign would be good news for Ultra Micro (UMi) business actors in Indonesia.

"The Government Investment Center has so far helped Ultra Micro businesses throughout Indonesia in terms of loans so they can continue to run their businesses. In addition to loan support, the Government Investment Center also provides other assistance such as training and assistance in terms of marketing, finance, legal issues, digitalization , and others," said Ludiro in a virtual press conference.

He also stated that the programs carried out by the Government Investment Center are expected to be more efficient and support the acceleration of the National Economic Recovery as stated in Government Regulation no. 23/2020.

Ririn Kadariyah stated that the campaign "Together with Friends -UMi Rise" aims to strengthen the UMi Ecosystem in Java and North Maluku as a model for other regions in Indonesia. This strengthening is carried out in collaboration with several parties, both from the Ministry of Finance, academia, the private sector, and others.

Some of the programs that will be carried out include the UMi incubation program in West Java (West Bandung and Majalengka) and East Java (Malang), as well as the formation of a forum for UMi business actors in North Maluku.

Incubation of UMi in West Java was carried out in collaboration with the Oorange Business Incubator Center, Padjadjaran University. Mentoring activities were carried out for 35 UMi debtors in West Bandung and Majalengka Regencies. They are given training in terms of increasing knowledge, improving product quality, product legality, and increasing digital knowledge.

Meanwhile, UMi incubation in East Java is carried out in collaboration with the Innovation Agency and Entrepreneurial Incubator Universitas Brawijaya (BIIW-UB). Assistance and training by BIIW-UB is carried out in Malang city and is focused on two things, namely digital marketing management and financial bookkeeping.

From the UMi incubation program that has been carried out in West Java and East Java, in the future the Government Investment Center will focus on developing debtors in cluster areas which will become a reference as a pilot for UMi Village.

The establishment of a forum for UMi business actors in Ternate, North Maluku, was carried out by providing assistance and training for 13 Ternate UMi debtors regarding product names, management, loans, and marketing. This forum is also intended as a means of business promotion and learning business management so that micro-enterprises in Ternate can advance to become MSME entrepreneurs in the future.

"Through this campaign, we want to continue the positive results of the Government Investment Center's performance in the previous year. This activity is also a concrete form of our support for national economic growth. So that more and more micro-business actors will advance to class so that it brings benefits to them personally, their families and the environment. , said Rin.

UMi Auction, a form of inter-institutional synergy

The 2021 UMi Featured Product Auction Program by the Government Investment Center is the result of collaboration between institutions under the Ministry of Finance such as the Central Treasury Office Employee Cooperative (Koppbn) - Directorate General of Treasury and Directorate of Auction - Directorate General of State Assets, Office of State Assets and Auction Services (KPKNL) - 1 Jakarta.

This program aims to help market products from UMi debtors, support the strengthening of the UMi Ecosystem, add sales channels for UMi products, as well as a form of synergy between institutions in an effort to support national economic growth.

The auction process begins with a technical discussion between the Government Investment Center, Koppbn, and the KPKNL. The results of the discussion are then submitted to the Indonesian Auction (www.lelang.go.id) for an auction request. The KPKNL then performs factual verification of all required data so that the auction activities can be announced to the public.

"The 2021 UMi Featured Product Auction Program by the Government Investment Center was carried out on Monday 30 August with an open or closed auction system. There are 76 packages/lots from 15 debtors offered to the public consisting of various products such as food and beverages, handicrafts such as batik cloth, rattan products, clothing, wood crafts and others," said Ririn.

A total of 66 lots of packages were auctioned with a close bidding system which was carried out on August 25-30, 2021, and 10 lots were auctioned with an open bidding system on August 30 yesterday. In the close bidding system, the average bidding price increased by 16 percent, while in open bidding there was an average increase of 17 percent.

"The auction program through the www.lelang.go.id platform provided by the Directorate of Auctions, DJKN can be an alternative to selling UMi products. The key to success lies in choosing types of products that have high intrinsic value potential and are of interest to the public and pricing strategies with bundling offers that right," said Ririn.

He also added that he strongly supports efforts to support national economic growth, especially at the micro and Ultra Micro (UMi) levels. This auction activity is believed to be able to increase the market reach of Ultra Micro actors as well as an effort to further introduce www.lelang.go.id to the wider community.