PDI drafts bill to protect small businesses

PDI drafts bill to protect small businesses

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) is calling on the government and the House of Representatives to give greater legal protection to small-scale enterprises.

"It's high time we had such laws. Small businesses should not be left backwards and poor," head of the party's research center, Kwik Kian Gie, told reporters here Wednesday.

He said the PDI has prepared a proposal to be submitted to the House and the government in order, he said, "to prove that PDI doesn't make slogans about the need for such laws without arming itself with clearly-defined concepts."

The government once promised to make bills aimed at protecting small-scale businesses but none have been submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation.

Kwik said that some 33 million small business enterprises in the country need to be protected from the unfair competition posed by major businesses and unfavorable regulations.

Very often, he said, the authorities implement laws and policies which imperil the existence of small-sized businesses.

He also called on the government to establish a small business advocacy committee. The committee would be accountable to the President, he said, and responsible for examining all government regulations.

The body would also help encourage policymakers to abolish regulations which are not conducive to small business practices.

He suggested that the committee be manned by seven experts, who would report their findings to the President through the Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises.

He defined small-sized businesses as those with fewer than 10 employees, whose total assets do not exceed Rp 400 million (approximately US$180,000) and whose total gross sales do not exceed Rp 1 billion per year.

Kwik said the party chose to bring its proposal straight to the press rather than to the party's representative at the DPR due to the arduous process involved before the proposal can be made into a bill. The approval of at least two other House factions is necessary before one faction can propose a bill.

He pointed out the slight possibility of the United Development Party or the dominant Golkar faction warming up to the PDI proposal.

"We hope the press will eventually push for the proposal to take root in public and be realized by the government," he said.

Kwik, who was accompanied by his deputy Roch Basuki, said the existing laws on cooperatives do not cover small enterprises. He also said that the government campaign designed to persuade major businesses and conglomerates into helping cooperatives and small businesses has failed miserably.

"PDI doesn't believe in partnership if we have to keep on asking for it," he said. "We don't believe that there's such a thing, that's why we started by stating that it is the right of small businesses (to get protection)," he said.

Analysts have long lamented the widening market share gap between big and small businesses. President Soeharto has several times acknowledged this and subsequently called on conglomerate owners to share their wealth with cooperatives, which, he feels, should support other small businesses.

During the last four years, state companies under the Ministry of Mines and Energy have set aside a total of Rp 119.33 billion (US$54.27 million) to support the development of small businesses. (swe)