Micro Business Facilitation Festival in Jember Aims to Upgrade MSMEs
The Micro Business Ease and Protection Festival is being held across 10 provinces, one of which is East Java, where it has been staged in Jember Regency, so MSMEs must make full use of it.
Jember, East Java (ANTARA) — The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) has said the Micro Business Ease and Protection Festival held in Jember Regency, East Java, is driving MSMEs to move up the value chain and become more empowered through the financing facilities and market access provided by the government.
“The Micro Business Ease and Protection Festival is being held in 10 provinces, one of which is East Java, where it has been placed in Jember Regency, so MSMEs must make the most of it,” said the Acting Deputy for Micro Business, who is also the Deputy for Entrepreneurship at the Ministry of MSMEs, Riza Damanik, at the festival in Jember Regency on Tuesday.
According to him, one of the government’s main programmes is to make it easier for MSMEs to gain access to financing and market access, because the two are interrelated.
“Providing financing access without providing market access will actually create problems for MSMEs later on, whereas obtaining financing without having a market means they cannot sell and cannot repay their credit loans,” he said.
The same applies in reverse: having broad market access but no easy access to financing will also make things difficult for MSME players, because there may be plenty of market demand that cannot be met due to limited capital.
“For that reason, the government is taking the initiative with a single integrated scheme and no longer carrying out sectoral MSME empowerment, but rather empowering MSMEs through a sound ecosystem,” he said.
The Micro Business Ease and Protection Festival is a form of joint commitment to strengthen micro enterprises through the provision of licensing access, financing, business mentoring, and legal and social protection for micro business actors.
In addition to widening financing access, the government is also continuing to strengthen services for MSME players through digital transformation so that various business services can be accessed more easily, quickly and in an integrated manner. One example is an integrated digital platform called the MSME Service Application System (SAPA UMKM).
Meanwhile, Jember Regent Muhammad Fawait expressed appreciation for the Ministry of MSMEs’ move, which he said sent a strong signal of the central government’s attention to business actors in the regions.
“The trust shown in making Jember the location for this event is a tangible form of the state’s commitment to the development of micro enterprises,” he said.
The Jember Regency Government itself is determined to continue concretely safeguarding MSME strengthening policies, with one routine step being regular field visits to embrace and listen to the aspirations of informal business actors.
He said MSME empowerment is the key element in the medium and long-term poverty alleviation strategy. This empowerment targets two main segments: sustaining existing MSMEs and creating new entrepreneurs from low-income community groups (the first and second decile categories).
“Poverty can only be concretely resolved if we provide real support to MSMEs that are already running, while at the same time creating new business opportunities for people of productive age in vulnerable groups,” he said.