Deputy Trade Minister urges Sriwijaya University students to create jobs
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Trade Minister Dyah Roro Esti has urged students at Sriwijaya University (Unsri) in Palembang, South Sumatra, to dare to start businesses and not merely focus on seeking employment, but also on creating job opportunities.
Deputy Trade Minister Roro, in a statement quoted in Jakarta on Friday, said that Indonesian youth possess great potential amid the momentum of the demographic bonus.
“However, this potential needs to be directed through the courage to become entrepreneurs and strong ecosystem support,” she said during a public lecture titled “Empowering Growth: Young Entrepreneurs For a Better Future” in Palembang, South Sumatra, on Thursday (16/4/2026).
According to her, the government through the Ministry of Trade continues to provide various facilitation programmes to encourage the emergence of young entrepreneurs.
These facilitations include business mentoring, access to domestic and international exhibitions, business matching with large enterprises, as well as capacity-building training and promotion.
“Young people today have great opportunities to start businesses. The government through the Ministry of Trade is providing facilitations, from training and market access to export mentoring. We want to ensure that anyone who dares to start a business does not walk alone. So don’t be afraid,” said Roro Esti.
As a concrete form of this support, the Ministry of Trade has implemented various partnership and business matching programmes.
Among them, business matching between 804 SMEs and companies from the MAP Group, IKEA, and Metro Department Store with 107 curated SMEs.
Furthermore, business matching between 75 food SMEs and KAI Services, which resulted in 6 selected SMEs forming official partnerships.
The Ministry of Trade also runs various partnership programmes with associations in the modern retail sector and shopping centres to expand market access for SMEs.
In addition, the Ministry of Trade collaborates with Paragon Corp to enhance the promotional capacity of SMEs through effective content creation training, as well as facilitating business matching with content creators, involving 100 SMEs.
The Ministry of Trade also opens opportunities for young entrepreneurs to develop businesses through a franchise scheme, which is considered to ease entry for beginners due to its proven business system.
Moreover, according to the Deputy Trade Minister, through the “SMEs Can Export” programme, the Ministry of Trade actively assists business actors, including young people, to penetrate global markets via mentoring, pitching, and networks of trade representatives abroad.
Currently, the Ministry of Trade is supported by 25 trade attachés and trade consulates, as well as 19 Indonesian Trade Promotion Centers (ITPC) in various countries to expand export market access.
Throughout 2025, through pitching and business matching facilitations, trade representatives have mentored around 1,200 SMEs with potential transactions reaching USD 134.8 million or equivalent to Rp2.2 trillion.
About 70 percent of them are SMEs that are exporting to markets for the first time.
To strengthen the role of universities in producing young entrepreneurial generations, Roro Esti continued, the Ministry of Trade also introduces the Campuspreneur programme as part of the “From Local to Global” initiative, which integrates training, product curation, and access to international markets.
“Friends, don’t be afraid to start small. The most important thing is the courage to start and the willingness to keep learning. The Ministry of Trade will continue to open access so that young people’s businesses can level up, even penetrating international markets,” she added.
The Deputy Trade Minister emphasised that the key for the younger generation is the courage to start and consistency in developing businesses.
With government support and an ecosystem that continues to be strengthened, Roro Esti hopes that Indonesian young entrepreneurs, who have great potential amid the demographic bonus momentum, will increasingly level up and compete in global markets.