Labuan Bajo – Indonesia continues to take advantage of its host status to promote economic inclusion, the first strategy is to build an integrated MSME business ecosystem. The government continues to provide technical assistance related to entrepreneurship so that MSME actors can introduce their products more broadly on the international stage.
Governor of Bank Indonesia Perry Warjiyo said that for MSMEs, Financial Inclusion talks about small units, small skills. Small businesses cannot develop if MSME actors do not have an ecosystem.
“Indonesia has experience in building a payment transaction ecosystem that has been digitized since 2019 through QR and QRISS, Fast Payment, and many more,” said Perry.
Most MSMEs need to increase their understanding of financial products, financial services, how to reach these financial services through digitization.
ASEAN can leverage this aspect through global best practices to benefit our region, as well as to protect financially literate customers.
“The use of the digital economy must be carried out fairly so as to create equality between ASEAN member countries, including in the national scope there must be justice that can be felt by MSMEs,” said
The recent massive development of information and digital technology has forced almost all sectors to adapt, including the economic sector. Therefore, lately the digital economy has begun to be widely echoed and predicted to be one of the most effective ways of trading.
In addition to digital payments, he continued, the increasingly widespread development and use of technology will also have a huge impact on the growth of new sectors such as e-commerce, fintech, edutech, healtech, agriculture and online media. Digital-based economic transformation must indeed be carried out comprehensively at every level of society, both in urban and rural areas.
Digital transformation in trade is expected to encourage the achievement of several sustainable development goals, including poverty alleviation as well as decent work and economic growth. Apart from that, digital transformation itself can be a golden ticket for economic recovery.
Digital transformation must be fair and offer equal opportunities and an equal distribution of benefits to all stakeholders, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) because they are the backbone of the global production system which contributes to employment and the number of businesses. In addition, MSMEs are important engines of innovation, growth, job creation and social cohesion in ASEAN member countries.
