Business size measured by different criteria

Business size measured by different criteria

JAKARTA (JP): Different government agencies define the size of a business by different criteria, with the Central Bureau of Statistics using employment numbers and the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises using asset figures.

"The bureau does not collect data on company assets because it would be difficult and take a lot of time," the bureau's deputy chief for planning and statistical analysis, Sri Budianti, was quoted by Antara as saying yesterday.

She said that the statistics bureau is using its current census to collect data on the number of enterprises, their sales turnovers, their fields of operations and geographical locations.

The census began early this month and is to continue until the end of next month.

Sri also said that the bureau will collect data on a select number of small and medium-scale enterprises next year.

"We will gather the data using a sample," she added.

She said the bureau's 1997 census will map out the big businesses.

The criteria used by the cooperatives ministry, which classifies small businesses on the basis of assets and annual sales turnovers, are stipulated in the new law on small enterprises enacted by President Soeharto early this week.

The law defines small enterprises as those with assets of no more than Rp 200 million (US$87,000), excluding buildings and land, and with annual sales turnovers of up to Rp 1 billion.

The government is committed to promoting 50,000 small enterprises next year in the hope that they will become medium- scale businesses.(kod)