MSMEs Urged to Maximise ASEAN Market Opportunities

Trade Minister Budi Santoso has urged micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to maximise opportunities in the ASEAN market through the update of the Second Protocol to Amend the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (Second Protocol ATIGA). According to him, the update to the agreement will strengthen regional trade integration while opening greater opportunities for national businesses.

The Minister stated that the Second Protocol ATIGA introduces two new areas of cooperation, namely economic and technical cooperation and MSMEs. These two areas serve as a foundation for capacity building and technical assistance so that business actors are better able to utilise trade opportunities in the ASEAN market.

“The high utilisation rate of the ATIGA scheme shows that Indonesian business actors are capable of leveraging the various opportunities available in the ASEAN market. With the update of ATIGA, we hope these benefits will be even greater for national businesses, especially MSMEs,” Budi said after a working meeting with Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives in Jakarta.

He explained that the Second Protocol ATIGA is an update to ATIGA, which has been in effect since 2010. The protocol increases ASEAN trade liberalisation commitments to 98.76 percent, while also strengthening trade facilitation, business certainty, and market access among member countries.

Budi noted that the update will make ASEAN trade rules more modern, efficient, and responsive to business developments. This step is expected to increase the benefits of regional trade for Indonesian business actors, particularly MSMEs.

As an illustration, the utilisation rate of ATIGA tariff preference facilities by Indonesian business actors reached 82.73 percent in 2024. This figure far exceeds the ASEAN average of 55.89 percent, demonstrating the high level of utilisation of regional trade facilities by national business actors.