Jimmy Gani Develops VECI Theory to Address Low Competitiveness of Village-Owned Enterprises

Jakarta, VIVA – CEO of the Bakrie Center Foundation (BCF), Jimmy Gani, has formulated the Village Enterprises Competitiveness Index (VECI) theory to address the low competitiveness of Badan Usaha Milik Desa (BUM Desa) in Indonesia. He presented this innovation during an open dissertation defence titled “Enhancing the Competitiveness of Badan Usaha Milik Desa (BUM Desa)” at the University of Indonesia in Depok on Tuesday, 5 May 2026. Jimmy highlighted that, as of March 2026 (data from the Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions Development and Transmigration), out of 72,807 BUM Desa in Indonesia, only 45,245 have legal entity status. Meanwhile, in the 2024 ranking by the Ministry of Villages, which involved 31,279 BUM Desa, only 12,690 were in the developing category and 1,923 in the advanced category, with the rest still in the pioneer and beginner categories. One of the main causes is the ineffective business model. Based on his research of 164 BUM Desa, more than 40% fall into the moderately competitive category, while the rest are in the low competitiveness or non-competitive categories. Only a small portion (around 14%) have good or very good competitiveness. “Indeed, there is already a ranking of BUM Desa by the Ministry of Villages, from pioneer, beginner, developing, to advanced. But I see that these indices do not yet reflect the competitiveness of the BUM Desa themselves,” Jimmy explained. According to Jimmy, the factors influencing BUM Desa competitiveness, based on overall analysis, include threats from substitute products, product viability, increasingly global competition, and opportunities. From this VECI theory, Jimmy has created steps for transforming competitive BUM Desa with four stages: 1. Reframe: changing the perspective and strategy of BUM Desa by focusing on improving product viability, opportunities, and paying attention to threats from substitute products. 2. Restructure: carrying out restructuring of resource allocation by creating new sources of income. 3. Revitalize: BUM Desa can revive products and services through customer segmentation or by updating the work culture to become agile. 4. Renew: building new capabilities for the future focused on threats from substitute products, product viability, increasingly global competition, and opportunities.