Rp 2.8 trillion spent to help small business

Rp 2.8 trillion spent to help small business

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Cooperatives and Small-scale
Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya said yesterday that state
companies and the Jimbaran-club tycoons had spent Rp 2.8 trillion
(US1.1 billion) helping cooperatives and small business over the
last six years.

The state companies had provided Rp 687 billion between 1990
and November this year in low-interest loans. And the Jimbaran
group had spent about Rp 2.1 trillion this year on business
partnership programs.

The Jimbaran club is the name of a group of 48 tycoons who
pledged at a meeting early last year in Jimbaran, Bali, to help
the government eradicate poverty.

The group began helping cooperatives and small business this
year.

State companies have been involved in the government's program
since 1990. They are required to set aside up to 5 percent of
their after-tax profits to help cooperatives and small business.

Early this year, the Jimbaran group committed to spending Rp
2.9 trillion on cooperatives and small business through low-
interest loans or business partnerships.

Some of the group's members had not fulfilled their promise,
the minister said. He refused to name them.

"We shall hold a special meeting with those who are yet to
fulfill their promise, urging them to realize them soon," he told
an end-of-year press conference.

Subiakto said some Jimbaran members were still studying the
best ways to channel funds to cooperatives and small business.
Many of them had set up special divisions to handle the funds.

He said state companies had allocated about 930 billion in
their budgets since 1990, but only Rp 687 billion had been
distributed.

They had allocated Rp 188 billion this year but only Rp 102
billion had been channeled, he said.

As part of the government's program to cut disparity between
large and small companies, President Soeharto called on big
businesses in 1990 to sell their shares to cooperatives and small
business. Subiakto said only 110 of the 248 publicly listed
companies had done this, while 201 unlisted companies had
followed his appeal.

The President urged companies to sell their shares to
cooperatives at nominal prices or around 10 percent of their
market value.

"We still encourage them to sell their shares as urged by the
President," he said.

The program to help cooperatives and small business was
fruitful: 3,573 small businesses had grown to become medium-scale
businesses this year, above our target of 3,400, he said.
"Another 3,948 small businesses had become independent (from the
program), below our target of 7,540," he said.

The government expected to help 15,000 small businesses become
medium-scale businesses and another 20,000 small businesses
become independent at the end of this Five Year Development Plan
in 1999, he said.

Subiakto said cooperatives had done increasingly well
throughout the year.

There are now 48,335 cooperatives, up from 46,456 last year,
with 26.9 million members, up from 26.3 million last year.
Cooperatives' assets are worth Rp 5.9 trillion, up from Rp 5.7
trillion at the end of last year.

The minister said President Soeharto would name 1997 as the
Year of Cooperatives to coincide with the golden anniversary of
Indonesian cooperatives.

The President would also name 1997 as the Year of
Telecommunications. (jsk)