MSMEs Difficult To Export, Minister Of Trade Lutfi: The Licensing Process Is Convoluted!

Minister of Trade, M. Lutfi. (Photo: Doc. Of the Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Trade (Mendag), Muhammad Lutfi, revealed the main reason for the difficulty of Indonesian micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to penetrate the international market. One of the reasons is the complicated licensing process.

"So, the business is how difficult it is to work out the licenses to become entrepreneurs," he said in the event of 'New Exporters 500K program inauguration' which was broadcast virtually, Wednesday, February 17.

Not only licensing, said Lutfi, MSME players who want to penetrate the international market are also faced with the difficulty of finding a market.

"After obtaining permission to become entrepreneurs, they are again faced with something they have never seen before, namely how difficult it is to find a market," he said.

Finally, the challenge faced by MSME players is to create export-quality products. According to him, if the national UMKM players were able to produce export quality products, it would certainly increase competitiveness in the international market.

A series of challenges for MSMEs are difficult for export, said Lutfi, it was known directly from one of the SMEs exotic leather players who failed to penetrate the South Korean market.

Lutfi said, at night when he was appointed Minister of Trade, he communicated with a servant. He said, this waiter talked about how difficult it is to export Indonesian products abroad.

"He used the Minister's CV (Teten Masduki), he used the CV. But he went bankrupt because his overseas buyers weren't paid for it. So, he sells exotic leathers, I hear he's been raving for a long time," he said.

Lutfi said, when he heard the story that his product was not paid for by a South Korean importer, he understood that the problem was the difference in quality.

"I heard that Korean people didn't pay Rp. 100 million. In my opinion, there is a difference in quality. Because the quality is not what was promised. So the Korean people refuse to pay. Once they don't get paid Rp. 100 million, the story is over," he said.