By: Adhita Wijayanti)*
The G20 Summit Forum is able to provide a very wide space for local Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to compete in the global market as a form of Government support for small business actors to continue to grow.
It is an open secret that MSMEs are a sector that dominates the majority of business actors in Indonesia, even recently the number has continued to increase so that its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has also skyrocketed in number from year to year. Data shows that it only took about 7 years for the total GDP of MSMEs in Indonesia to increase by 2 times, starting from 2010 to 2017.
It can even be said that about more than 99 percent of businesses in Indonesia are in the MSME sector because the total number of units has reached more than 62 million. It is not only the value of GDP and also the number of business units that continues to increase, but the investment value of MSMEs is also increasing very rapidly because if it is withdrawn from 1999 to 2013 or in about 14 years, the growth has reached 963 percent.
It is also not surprising that the MSME sector has a very important role in being able to support economic growth in the country. One of the things that causes this is because the transaction cycle in MSMEs is fast and the products have a tendency to be directly related to the main needs of the wider community.
On the other hand, with the world moving towards globalization, when it seems that the boundaries between countries are no longer felt, the competition for MSMEs is getting tougher because micro and medium enterprises in Indonesia not only have to compete with other business actors from around the world. the same country, but they must also be prepared to face the onslaught of business actors from abroad.
With this threat, it turns out that the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit Forum, in which Indonesia plays the role of a Presidency or leader there, will continue to provide the widest possible space for MSMEs to be able to compete more broadly in the realm of global market.
Instead of having to continue to play passively and even increase the potential threat from several foreign products entering Indonesia, the right step is to play actively, namely by continuing to promote local MSME products. In this case, the Government has a very brilliant initiative, namely choosing several superior products to be used as souvenirs for the G20 Summit so that it can also be a promotional event.
How not, because there is a screening of certain MSMEs that are considered worthy and can be selected as official merchandise from the G20 Summit. Regarding this, the Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Teten Masduki stated that with the continued promotion of MSME products at the G20 event, it would certainly become an effective promotion event.
Because of this brilliant initiative, even the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs itself also directly provides assistance to MSMEs from various processes starting from production, packaging to how to do branding. The assistance provided by the KemenkopUKM is indeed a very important thing to do in order to maintain the quality of the products produced by the local MSMEs themselves.
Not only used as merchandise and souvenirs, but MSME products were also displayed at the G20 side event. The products that are featured are artisan products such as culinary, wellness and also in the realm of fashion. The Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs stated that artisan products do have an advantage because they are very capable of meeting the interests of the community and the market itself, moreover, the products have unique characteristics and are not mass-produced, so there is an impression of exclusivity attached to them.
Furthermore, not only do they support cultural and artistic wealth as a source of strength for MSMEs, but the MenkopUKM in the future will continue to make breakthroughs by assuming that MSMEs are based on innovation and technology. This is not just a plan, because Teten Masduki emphasized that so far the roadmap already exists and is currently in the preparation stage and only forming collaborations with various related parties.
All the support provided by the Government has indeed made many parties place great optimism, including Teten Masduki herself. He admitted that these local MSME products in the future could be accepted by the domestic market and even abroad because the ecosystem continues to experience improvements.
Meanwhile, efforts from the Government to continue to support the people’s economy by encouraging continued progress in the MSME sector also came from the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. He emphasized that he would directly invite entrepreneurs from various countries in the official dialogue forum of G20 members with the global business community (B20) to come and visit directly to see Indonesian MSMEs.
The strength possessed by the Indonesian MSMEs cannot be doubted, coupled with the commitment and seriousness shown by the Government by continuing to encourage MSMEs to be able to compete in the global market through the G20 Summit forum, the optimism that local products of the nation’s children are able to dominate the international arena become more and more visible.
)* The author is a Literacy activist in Purwokerto
