What Is The Role Of Women For Empowering MSMEs? This Is The Words Of The Coordinating Minister For Teten

Coordinating Minister for SMEs Teten Masduki (Photo via Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki said the role of women plays an important role in empowering micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and cooperatives.

Teten said, strengthening the empowerment of MSME actors in the country, most of whom are women, needs to be done so that MSMEs can further support economic equity.

"The majority of MSME actors in Indonesia are women, with a presentation of 64.5 percent," said Teten at the Digital Cooperative Transformation event by the Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) in the G20 series in Bandung, West Java, Monday 15 August.

She ensures that the economic potential of MSMEs managed by women needs to be explored. Among other things, he said, by consolidating women's MSMEs in cooperatives.

"So they can access various facilities and benefits owned by cooperatives," he said.

In addition, according to him, the encouragement of MSMEs and cooperatives to enter the realm of digitalization is also a necessity in order to realize food independence.

Meanwhile, Deputy for Cooperatives at the Ministry of Cooperatives for SMEs, Ahmad Zabadi, said cooperatives managed by women have considerable potential in empowering women.

Later, he said, the cooperative could become a forum for women in terms of education and training to improve women's quality of life.

"Cooperatives can create opportunities for women to help themselves and are not hampered by patriarchal ideology that prioritizes men, because in cooperatives, all members have the same rights and obligations," said Ahmad quoted from Antara.

Currently, he continued, the government continues to try to strengthen policies and programs for digital transformation of cooperatives and MSMEs by setting a target of 30 million MSMEs implementing digitalization, 500 modern cooperatives, and 17.6 percent of MSME export contributions by 2024.

"All of this is an effort so that the power of Indonesia's digital economy can be fully utilized for the welfare of the wider community," said Ahmad.