Sandiaga Uno's Strategy To Protect MSMEs From A 'Wheight' Economy

JAKARTA - Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno acknowledged the importance of MSMEs in dealing with uncertain economic conditions in recession in 2023.

"Mr. President always said that currently the economy is difficult and next year is dark. We must define what the dark is. Dark is defined as volatile, worried about the situation around us," said Sandiaga Uno, Sunday, October 16.

He mentioned the importance of efforts to deal with this uncertain situation by knowing various kinds of risks.

"How to overcome it in the dark is what potential we will face, such as industry 4.0 and black swab events. This potential opens space for unexpected or unclear things. We must understand that if it is dark, we must turn on dishes for tourism by knowing the risks and challenges of the economy," said Sandiaga Uno.

He stated that one of the risks to minimize this is to strengthen the MSME sector.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has transitioned, there must be strengthening, because 97 percent of the employment work is from MSMEs, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has strengthened the MSME sector," said Sandiaga Uno.

Sandiaga Uno revealed that the uncertain situation was caused by an energy and food crisis originating from global political geo.

"Second is a geopolitical factor triggered by the situation in Europe and the energy and food crisis that is in sight. We must anticipate that there is a global inequality that we must address and the fiscal stimulus space that we use for COVID-19 we transition to sustainable growth with new and renewable energy," Sandiaga said.

He said that tourism and creative economy sector actors also need to be adapted to the current trend of the tourism sector.

"The new trend in tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic has changed completely, the trend of medium and long-term global tourism presents the concepts of personalization, customization, localization, and smaller in number. The use of Virtual Intelligence and Big Data, Remote Working, changes in the global supply chain towards green recovery. We must understand that sustainable activities must be prioritized," he continued.

The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, said Sandiaga Uno, in addition to seeing the number of tourists who come now also prioritizes the quality of tourism, namely by ensuring that tourists who come have a big impact on the local Parekraf sector.

"We will encourage innovation, adaptation, collaboration in our Tourism and Creative Economy sector. In the past, we only calculated the number of tourist visits, we don't really care about how long they live and what impact on the surrounding community, now we are thinking about the impact on local life," said Sandiaga Uno.

These efforts, said Sandiaga Uno, bear sweet fruit with the increasing Indonesian tourism index over the past few times.

"Over the last 18 months we have made a transition and the Indonesian tourism index jumped 8 places to beat Malaysia and Vietnam. Because we have natural and cultural tourist destinations, as well as priority policies and an inclusive tourism approach," explained Sandiaga Uno.

The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, said Sandiaga Uno, has launched various programs to advance the tourism sector and the creative economy, such as tourist villages, super priority destinations which are expected to create 4.4 million jobs by 2024.

"Hopefully, the welfare and income of the community will increase, eradicate poverty and foster love for the country and raise the image of the nation with various tourist destinations throughout Indonesia," said Sandiaga Uno.

The growth and acceleration in the tourism sector and the creative economy continues to be encouraged by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy by prioritizing sustainable innovation, digitization, and empowerment.

"We will prioritize inclusive, collaborative, and sustainable policies, so that what has been done since the last 8 years can continue by the elected leaders in 2024," concluded Sandiaga Uno.