Indonesia hopes to learn from Austrian SME program
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.