MSMEs Encouraged to Upgrade and Become Exporters
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Minister of Trade, Budi Santoso, is encouraging more Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to upgrade and become exporters, penetrating the global market. This effort is being carried out through strengthening export assistance, business matching, and expanding access to international buyers.
The Minister conveyed this during his attendance at the “NGOPI: Ngobrol Produk Indonesia” discussion in Jakarta, Wednesday (May 13, 2026). This forum, a collaboration between the Ministry of Trade and the Local Champion Indonesia (LCI) MSME empowerment movement, brought together MSME players, young exporters, aggregators, and other stakeholders to discuss opportunities for exporting local products.
“Forums like this can help MSMEs better understand that their products have export potential. Many MSMEs actually have good products but don’t know how to export,” said Budi in Jakarta, quoted on Thursday (May 14, 2026).
He explained that the Ministry of Trade is now preparing several programs to expand MSME market access. One of them is the ‘UMKM Berani Inovasi, Siap Adaptasi (BISA) Ekspor’ program, which connects MSME players with potential buyers in target countries through pitching and business matching.
This program is strengthened through the optimization of 46 Indonesian Trade Representative offices in 33 countries as the spearhead of promoting Indonesian products. The ‘UMKM BISA Ekspor’ program is also part of the Ministry of Trade’s larger program entitled “From Local to Global.”
“After determining the target market, we connect MSMEs with the Indonesian Trade Representative in the target export country. After a presentation to the Indonesian Trade Representative to explore market potential, we will find buyers,” said Budi.
He added that the Ministry of Trade also provides product design consulting services through the Indonesia Design Development Center (IDDC). This service aims to help MSMEs improve the quality and competitiveness of their products so that they can compete in the international market.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Trade has the Product Placement Pilihan Busan program, which involves placing potential export MSME products in the Minister of Trade’s lounge. These products are promoted to visiting foreign guests and delegations.
The Director General of National Export Development at the Ministry of Trade, Fajarini Puntodewi, said that access to market information and the use of technology are important factors for MSMEs to compete globally. To support this need, the Ministry of Trade presents the Inaexport platform as an integrated export service.
“Inaexport, as a one-stop service, has information about the profiles of both buyer and exporter companies. You can connect with buyers around the world,” said Puntodewi.
In the discussion, business actors expressed several aspirations regarding logistics, strengthening digital platforms, and simplifying export regulations for certain products. The Ministry of Trade stated that it is open to input from business actors to strengthen national trade policies that are more adaptive to the needs of MSMEs.
The Founder of Local Champion Indonesia, Dhika Yudistira, explained that the “NGOPI” forum was born from the desire to bring together the government, institutions, and business actors in one discussion forum. According to him, collaboration is an important factor in increasing the opportunities for MSMEs to penetrate international markets.
“From the initiative of a coffee shop chat, we saw the need for the government, institutions, and business actors to sit together. Currently, the potential of Indonesian MSME products is very large,” said Dhika.
A batik MSME entrepreneur from Solo, Abdullah, said that the forum helped him understand the export procedures that have been the main obstacle for his business to enter the global market. He believes that the market potential for his products is quite large and his production capacity is adequate.
The “NGOPI: Ngobrol Produk Indonesia” forum is expected to be a consultation and networking platform for national MSMEs. The government continues to encourage the emergence of more similar forums to accelerate the emergence of new exporters from various regions.