Government Formulates Strategy to Rescue Indonesian SMEs

The government is preparing an integrated entrepreneurship ecosystem approach strategy to support the development of SMEs and solutions to their problems, namely access to global partnerships, banking finance, technology utilisation, and suboptimal SME standardisation. The first step is expanding access to financing by encouraging SMEs to pursue formal financing through banks, non-banks, and other alternatives. “In this regard, the government is truly focusing on access to financing, where Rp300 trillion has been allocated for KUR, and alhamdulillah last year we achieved 97.3 percent distribution, where the proportion was Rp280 trillion plus Rp20 trillion,” stated Deputy Minister of SMEs Helvi Yuni Moraza during her speech at the Dialogue Towards Intergenerational Welfare event at the Ministry of National Development Planning office in Jakarta on Monday (7/4/2026). As a follow-up, the Ministry of SMEs is conducting monitoring and supervision, particularly regarding the distribution of KUR below Rp100 million, which does not require collateral. “At the Ministry of SMEs, we have monitoring and supervision meetings for KUR, so issues that have been debated about unsecured credit below Rp100 million are starting to be orderly,” she said. “There are no more efforts to complicate access to financing for SMEs because we are concentrating on the fact that it is the right of SMEs prepared by the government, in this case President Prabowo Subianto,” Helvi added. The second strategy is increasing access to business incubators. Helvi said that to support this strategy, the government has created the Entrepreneur Hub programme, which requests and encourages universities to establish business incubators. “Some of them have already established campus-owned enterprises, and this plays a significant role in the growth and development of young entrepreneurs,” said Helvi. The third strategy is enhancing access to innovation, technology, and digitalisation. This strategy aims to encourage SMEs to innovate, adopt technology and e-payments, facilitated through onboarding SMEs to digital platforms to expand markets. Helvi stated that her side is also inviting online platforms to participate in providing training or guidance to SMEs. “Then there is the enhancement of innovation and technology as well as digitalisation; we also ask for responsibility from online platforms—besides enjoying their profits, they must also provide some form of training or guidance to SMEs,” she said. Furthermore, strengthening the national entrepreneurship ecosystem through the implementation of entrepreneurship regulations and PP 7/2021, and finally standardising empowerment programmes through the Productive Business Card.