Deputy Minister: Kumitra Programme Aims to Upgrade MSMEs

Deputy Minister of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Helvi Yuni Moraza has stated that the Easy Micro Business Partnership (Kumitra) programme is one of the government’s efforts to encourage MSME players to upgrade through strengthened collaboration, financing access, and market expansion.

Helvi explained that the programme is part of the President’s directive to strengthen national entrepreneurship while increasing the capacity of MSMEs to grow sustainably.

“Developing entrepreneurship means nurturing and assisting MSMEs so their businesses can upgrade and become sustainable,” Helvi said in Bandung on Wednesday.

According to her, entrepreneurship development is not only carried out by creating new entrepreneurs, but also by nurturing and assisting existing business players so they can develop and have higher competitiveness.

She noted that the Kumitra programme is designed as an instrument to accelerate the capacity building of MSMEs, particularly through the use of technology, which is considered an important factor in business development.

Helvi said the government has prepared two main facilities in the programme, namely financing access and market access that can be utilised by MSME players in various regions.

To support financing access, she said, the government is collaborating with the association of state-owned banks (Himbara) as well as several national private banks so that business players can more easily obtain business capital support.

“In realising the programme set by the President, we must strive to gather many parties to collaborate. The main ones are, of course, ministries and institutions.”

Helvi hopes the Kumitra programme can strengthen the contribution of the MSME sector to the national economy, which has so far been the main pillar of Indonesia’s economic growth.

“We hope that the aspiration for the Indonesian economy to be supported by more than 60 percent by the MSME sector can continue to be realised, even increased higher than the achievement of around 62 to 63 percent that was previously reached,” she said.