Menkop UKM Teten Masduki: Women Are Strategic Movers In The National Economy

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki said that women's Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are strategic drivers in national economic development because they are the majority (64.5 percent) of types of businesses in Indonesia. The statement was delivered in a written speech read by Deputy Assistant for Business Consultation and Assistance to the Deputy for Entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs Destry Anna Sari at the Women 20 (W20) Indonesia UMKM Expo event in Bandung, West Java, through an official statement, Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Monday, November 7. "The great dominance of women as MSME actors, and the great enthusiasm of women to gather in cooperatives shows that women are able to be equal to men to participate in advancing the economy of the nation and state," said Teten. On that occasion, he appreciated the W20 Committee and six University Alumni Associations, ranging from UNPAD, UNPAR, ITB, IPB, UPI, and UI which held the W20 Indonesia UMKM Expo with the involvement of 200 MSMEs after going through the selection process and curation process from 700 registrants. According to Teten, W20 and Sisternet XL Axiata have synergized with the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection to implement business incubation programs in order to increase the capacity of female business actors related to the understanding of gender perspective entrepreneurship, scaling up business, marketing and branding, financial literacy, and promotion through digital marketing. The W20 Sispreneur Program (collaboration between W20 and Sisternet XL Axiata) is considered to provide an understanding of the perspective of gender equality, programs to increase digital literacy, business assistance from global experts, providing access to capital, and opening up opportunities to expand business to the global world. According to the Coordinating Minister, nearly 80 percent of participants of the W20 Sispreneur program have successfully gone digital. "This incubation class program has also become very relevant to be held in order to help on both sides at once, namely the women's side as a driver of the family economy and MSMEs they manage so that they can support the family economy and drive the economy in the surrounding environment," he said. Currently, as many as 20.24 million MSMEs have gone digital according to the idEA (Indonesia E-Commerce Association) in August 2022. The data from the Ministry of Cooperatives recorded that 67.4 percent of the government's target of 30 million MSMEs entered the digital ecosystem by 2024. "Not only onboarding, MSMEs need to be guided to be able to increase their capacity and reach a wider market," he said. Chairman of the Indonesian W20 Committee 2022 Hadriani Uli Silalahi said the W20 UMKM Expo event was a closing activity before entering the G20 peak event in Kuta Bali on November 13-14, 2022. "The activity that received an extraordinary response from female MSMEs, especially in West Java, is an official side event that we will report at the G20 meeting in Bali," said Uli.