RI gets US$1.25m grant for SME centers

Leony Aurora , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia has received a US$1.25 million grant from the South Korean government for the development of small and medium scale enterprise (SME) centers.

President of Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica) Kim Suk-hyun handed over the donation to Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Yusuf Kalla on Tuesday at the launching ceremony of the Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure Development Project for SME centers at Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) Tanah Abang branch in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

The funds will be allocated for nine pilot projects of the Center for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (CD-SME), which has existed since 2001, and nine new centers located in 14 provinces.

"Without technology, it's very difficult to enter the globalization world," said Sharif Cicip Sutardjo of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) at a press conference held after the ceremony.

At the centers, entrepreneurs can find suppliers and buyers online and promote their products in the website, as well as conduct use the Internet facilities for e-mailing and browsing.

CD-SME also functions as a virtual training center (VTC) to promote e-learning among businessmen, said Ida Bagus Putu Sarga, president of CD-SME.

"We provide training which is not bound by time or place," he said.

The Korean government, aside from providing hardware and software facilities for the centers, also provide training and cover the cost of installing the facilities at the VTC.

The initial idea of SME centers surfaced in the summit of 15 developing countries (G-15) in Indonesia three years ago, when participants agreed to promote SME centers in their countries and appointed Indonesia to start the pilot project, said Rudjito, the president of BRI.

Nine centers were built in a project involving BRI, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and the SME division of Kadin.

"The centers were built in BRI branches for accessibility and Telkom provided the technology needed," said Rudjito, who is also the project coordinator.

Today, there are already 800 members of the nine pilot centers with a network of some 2,000 SMEs.

The government has been trying to boost economic activities and create more job opportunities by empowering SMEs, which in 2002 totaled 3.03 million and absorbed 12 million workers.