Coordinating Minister Airlangga: Start Up Plays The Role Of Job Creation And Accelerating Economic Growth

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said start-up-based start-ups as part of Indonesia's digital ecosystem have helped accelerate national economic growth.

Currently, Indonesia is the country with the 5th largest number of startups, namely 2,477 units, with 9 Unicorns and 2 Decacorns, namely GoTo and J&T Express.

"Start-up plays a role in job creation, improves welfare, and contributes to a sustainable economy through the solutions and innovations it offers," said Airlangga as quoted by Antara, Thursday, February 2.

However, based on a report from the Indonesian Creative Industry for Technology and Communication, start-ups still continue to find obstacles related to the difficulty of accessing capital.

For this reason, the government seeks to provide support for start-ups, such as training programs from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Beta School business matching programs, the 1000 Digital Startup National Movement, Start-up Studio Indonesia, Hub.id, and the STARTUP4INDUSTRY.ID Program from the Ministry of Industry.

In addition, the government has also paid special attention to the creation of productive entrepreneurs through the implementation of Presidential Regulation Number 2 of 2022 concerning National Entrepreneurship Development, which is expected to be able to produce 500 new start-ups by 2024.

As for 2020, global export services carried out digitally have reached 64 percent and have proven to be able to survive during the pandemic.

Digital transformation has also prompted the digital economy to appear as a new economic force in Southeast Asia where the value of the digital economy in Southeast Asia reaches 174 billion US dollars by 2021, and is predicted to increase to 1 trillion US dollars by 2030.

On this occasion, Airlangga also advised the younger generation as a digital native to be able to equip themselves with digital literacy and master digital skills so that they can become digital talents who are able to participate in the digital transformation process in the country.

"Facing the challenges ahead, the millennials and generation Z are required to have a character that is able to adapt highly, flexible, creative, technology savvy, empathy, and is able to think critically as the main capital to face the era of dynamically moving digitalization," concluded Airlangga.