Indonesia hopes to learn from Austrian SME program
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia should learn from Austria's success in turning its small and medium-scale businesses and cooperatives into the backbone of its economy and its largest employer, Indonesian Ambassador to Austria Samodra Sriwidjaja said after a series of meetings in Vienna with Austrian business leaders.
Sriwidjaja said in a press release sent to The Jakarta Post on Friday that even though Austria's economy was fully based on market capitalism, small and medium-scale enterprises and cooperatives made up more than 99 percent if its businesses.
"Indonesia should take a great lesson from this country whose capital city, Vienna, is also the headquarters of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization," Sriwidjaja said.
The ambassador made the remarks after accompanying Ki Tony Agus Ardie, the coordinator of the Indonesian Task Force for the Empowerment of Small and Medium-Scale Businesses and Cooperatives, to a series of talks with business and cooperative leaders on Wednesday and Thursday.
Tony and Sriwidjaja met with Adolf Moser, vice chairman of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, and managers of the Austrian Cooperatives Association and the Raiffeissen business and management training center for small entrepreneurs.
During the meetings, they discussed the possibility of forging a cooperation between the two countries to help in the development of Indonesia's SMEs.
"As Vienna also is the headquarters of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Indonesia can tap the experience and resources of this organization to assist its SME development," Tony said.
Tony said the model of SME development in Austria successfully integrated technical, marketing and financing assistance.
"I therefore am glad to learn that Raiffeissen Zentral Bank (RZB), a major bank in Austria, is a member of the Swissasia consortium that has been appointed as the final bidder for the government's 52 percent stake in Bank Lippo in Jakarta," Tony said, adding that RZB could contribute greatly to financing SMEs in Indonesia.
We cannot emphasize enough the important role SMEs play in creating jobs for the huge number of unemployed people in Indonesia, Tony said.
In December, Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengku Buwono X also visited Austria, addressing the annual UNIDO conference and holding talks with Austrian business leaders about the development of SMEs in Indonesia, particularly in Yogyakarta.
UNIDO, which focuses on SMEs in developing countries, last year chose Yogyakarta as a model for an SME empowerment program based on a three pillar concept featuring cooperation between the local administration, universities and big business.