Big, small firms vow partnership
Big, small firms vow partnership
JAKARTA (JP): Representatives of conglomerates and small enterprises agreed yesterday to end confrontation and build up partnerships to strengthen Indonesia's competitiveness on the global market.
Sofyan Wanandi, a spokesman for the Prasetya Mulya Group of business tycoons, and Sri Edi Swasono, chairman of the Indonesian Cooperatives Council, said in a seminar here yesterday that if national business players oppose each other, they will be weakened when Indonesia enters a free trade era next century.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Indonesia is a member, will liberalize trade among its members under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) arrangement in 2003, while Indonesia, as a developing member of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, will have to liberate its trade and investment regimes for APEC countries by the year 2020.
Swasono told the seminar that the partnership should be based on a participatory basis, meaning that conglomerates should not provide only funds for smaller businesses and cooperatives but should also involve them in planning, actuating and evaluating activities.
A seminar participant supported Swasono's remarks, saying that the conglomerate owners, acting as experts, generally provide financial assistance for small businesses without involving them in planning activities.
Using an analogy to criticize the attitude of conglomerate owners, he said that even a medical specialist always asks his patients about their sufferings.
Swasono said cooperatives have wrongly been regarded as unprofessional institutions which cannot take advantage of existing opportunities and cannot implement technology.
A former member of the House of Representatives, R.K. Sembiring Meliala, commented that the basis for cooperation in business under the country's constitution has been wrongly adapted as a "family system."
Swasono complained that he has never been invited by conglomerate owners to hold discussions to plan any assistance for small businesses.
Sofyan, also spokesman for about 100 conglomerate owners who pledged in Bali in August to provide a portion of their annual net profits for assisting smaller enterprises, said that confrontations between small and larger businesses have resulted in a waste of energy.
He explained that conglomerate owners actually have established cooperation with Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade Hartarto and Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya to put the Bali pledge on the assistance for smaller businesses into practice.
He also said partnerships have been set up with about 100 small businesses.
Sofyan said the conglomerate owners have appointed Ilyas, who was also present at yesterday's meeting, as a coordinator of the assistance program.
"A list of 2,500 small enterprises have been put forwarded to us as prospective recipients of assistance," said Sofyan, who is also chairman of the Gemala Group.
He added that next month the conglomerate owners will announce their annual plans of partnership with smaller enterprises and will make known the names of their partners.
"PT Bogasari Flour Mill, for example, plans to provide technical assistance for bread shop owners in a bid to improve the quality of their products," said Sofyan. (kod)
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