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)