Erick Thohir And Teten Agree To Optimize The Budget For Shopping For MSME Products

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of SOEs Erick Thohir and Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki agreed to optimize the SOE budget for spending on cooperative and MSME products, especially with a tender value of under IDR 400 million.

"The SOE actually has three tasks, namely financing, mentoring, and opening market access. But we cannot open market access ourselves without the support of other ministries, so we need synergy," said Erick Thohir in a written statement, quoted from Antara, Sunday, May 8.

According to Erick, the collaboration strengthens the joint commitment that he and the Coordinating Minister for SMEs have made through the Digital Market or PaDi UMKM digital platform initiative, which brings together all SOEs and MSME actors. As of April 25, 2022, there have been more than 15.000 MSMEs joined in PaDi MSMEs with recorded transactions reaching Rp. 20 trillion.

Erick Thohir's commitment to support cooperative and MSME products was also emphasized at the Affirmation for the Purchase and Utilization of Domestic Products in Order to Be Proud Made in Indonesia on April 25, 2022. At that time, the Minister of SOEs confirmed that he would remove SOE directors who did not carry out President Joko Widodo's instructions regarding increasing purchase and use of domestic MSME products.

"There are more than 100 state-owned hotels that we have combined. Later all of their products must be supported by MSMEs with Sarinah as the aggregator. So the brand is Sarinah, but the products behind it are all MSMEs," said Erick.

Likewise, for public facilities owned by other SOEs, such as hospitals, efforts will also be made to use products from cooperatives and MSMEs.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for SMEs Teten Masduki said that the current quality of MSME products and following the trend of people who are interested in unique and rare products. This is because most of the KUMKM in the country are producers of artisan products that are unique and are not produced in large quantities.

"MSME products are not inferior to industrial products, because these are artisanal products and this is an advantage because the goods are scarce, so the rarer the better," said Teten Masduki.

Therefore, he encourages ministries/agencies and SOEs to optimize their product spending on KUMKM products and services, which are now continuously improving their quality and quantity.

Teten also stated that currently the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (KemenKopUKM) is preparing for the presence of future MSMEs based on innovation and technology. MSMEs are also expected to be competitive and ready to enter the global market.

"We also want to prepare the future of our MSMEs based on technological innovation. The road map is already in place, we have prepared this and now we just have to form collaboration with all parties," he said.

Currently, MSMEs are also being promoted at the G20 Indonesia Presidency event, where this is a strategic momentum to introduce superior MSME products to the world's eyes. Currently, KemenKopUKM is focusing on promoting various MSME products that have been curated to show off at various G20 side events.

"We want to encourage MSMEs to be ready to enter the global market," said Teten.