Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution Strengthens MSME Collaboration With 4 SOEs

Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution when reviewing MSME players in traditional markets. (ANTARA/HO-Diskominfo Medan City)

MEDAN - The Mayor of Medan, North Sumatra, Bobby Nasution, continues to strengthen the collaboration of local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) implementing digitalization with four BUMNs.

"This is our effort to encourage MSME actors in Medan City to use digitalization for their business activities," he said in Medan, quoted by Antara, Thursday, March 3.

The four SOEs are PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (Persero), PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero), PT Pegadaian (Persero), and PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) in the context of providing banking services.

Bobby Nasution admitted that the signing of the memorandum of understanding for the four SOEs had been carried out some time ago, so that through digitalization, the MSME products produced were increasingly known to the wider community.

Based on data from the Medan City Cooperatives and SMEs Service, the number of MSMEs fostered by the Medan City Government is around 27,000 units out of a total of 70,000 units recorded.

"With the various collaborations that we do, I hope to be able to advance MSME players in the city of Medan, especially digitalization. During this pandemic, digitalization is very important," said Bobby Nasution.

"Moreover, technology is growing, so MSME actors must follow in order to be able to advance to class," said the Mayor of Medan.

Academician of the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Medan Area, Siti Alhamra Salqaura, SE, MSi, supports the Medan City Government's move to "go digital", and of course it is better to do a monthly review of how many local MSMEs are growing digitally.

This digitalization plan, explained Bobby Nasution, does not only reach out to socialization and education programs, but also implementation through incubation which is continued by MSMEs.

"Hopefully Medan City MSMEs are more digitally literate and can increase their profits with income levels, the welfare of the Medan people in general, and MSMEs in particular will also increase," explained Siti.