PT Astra forms partnership with small businesses
MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara (JP): Publicly-listed car maker PT Astra International is to form partnerships with small businesses and cooperatives in Lombok in the spirit of the so-called Jimbaran Declaration.
The partnerships have been initiated by an agreement signed yesterday by Astra's social foundation, Yayasan Dharma Bhakti Astra, and the West Nusa Tenggara provincial office of the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises.
"I hope that Astra's move will be followed by other conglomerates involved in the Jimbaran Declaration, so we may expect that in a few years to come we will see more small businesses in West Nusa Tenggara become stronger," the chief of the ministry's office, Maman Suparman, said before the signing ceremony.
Early this year, executives of almost 100 Indonesian conglomerates including Astra met at Jimbaran in Bali and declared that they would help narrow the gap between the rich and the poor by strengthening partnerships with small businesses. This was especially meant to aid technology transfer.
The Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises, Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya, said in his speech that he expected that Astra's move would help solve social problems.
"Under the agreement, Astra is committed to helping improve the managerial skills of the executives of the training center for cooperatives and small businesses in the province, focusing on the transfer of technology," the foundation's general manager, Krisni Murti, said.
Astra, according to Krisni, would provide assistance within two years to train professionals from different areas who would then lead around 50 small businesses and cooperatives in Lombok.
"We also provide office equipment in the training center," she said. "We hope that we can do something to help cooperatives and small businesses increase the value of their products."
She said that a similar program was established in Padang last month and another would be launched in Lampung in September.
Long-term vision
In an interview with The Jakarta Post, Krisni disclosed that Astra had established partnerships with small businesses long before the Jimbaran meeting. It had established its own social foundation in 1980.
"In dealing with the executives of small businesses, we have to understand their way of thinking and cultural background because that will allow us to select an appropriate approach," she said.
"Moreover, any partnership should be based on a long term vision to make them survive by their own ability. Therefore, although we have strong financial back-up, we should avoid establishing partnerships based merely on mercy," she said.
"In the long run, we expect to see that they have a competitive edge."
Krisni said that by late 1995, the foundation had set up partnerships with 239 small businesses as sub-contractors: they included 53 vendors and 177 suppliers of car components. All of them were in Java.
In agribusiness and timber industries, Astra has partnerships with 8,172 small businesses in East Kalimantan, Lampung and Jambi.
"Meanwhile, for small businesses which do not operate in Astra's line of business, we have established 285 partnerships in the industrial sector, 164 partnerships in the service sector and 46 partnerships with cooperatives, with 25,626 members in eight provinces." (alo)