Small business alowed to procure official goods

Small business alowed to procure official goods

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has called for the full
enforcement of rulings allowing small businesses and cooperatives
to procure goods, equipment or services for government offices.

Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Subiakto
Tjakrawerdaya said Thursday night that the President had ordered
Vice President Try Sutrisno to strictly punish those violating
the rulings.

"The instruction makes clear that the government is committed
to involving small businesses and cooperatives in the procurement
of goods or equipment for government offices," Subiakto said in a
meeting with members of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (Kadin).

In the meeting, presided over by Coordinating Minister for
Production and Distribution Hartarto Sastrosoenarto and Kadin
chairman Aburizal Bakrie, Kadin members were briefed about the
results of the limited cabinet meeting early this week, which
discussed the poverty alleviation program and business
partnership between small and big companies.

Also present at the meeting were Minister of National
Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Minister of
Population Haryono Suyono, Minister of Public Works Radinal
Moochtar, and hundreds of chamber members from throughout the
country.

Subiakto said presidential decree No. 16 of 1994 and
presidential decree No. 24 of 1995 gives small businesses and
cooperatives a privilege in procuring goods and equipment or
providing services to government offices.

The minister said about 30 percent of the annual state budget
was allocated for the government's routine spending, including
for the procurement of equipment, goods or services.

"But the implementation of the regulations is weak due to the
weakness of the monitoring system," Subiakto said.

Subiakto said the Coordinating Ministry for Economy, Finance
and Development Supervision had recently issued an instruction to
form a new mechanism in supervising the implementation of the
regulations.

He said government offices or other related institutions were
instructed to report on the implementation of the regulations
every three months to secretary generals of each ministry and the
reports would be audited by the Development Finance Controller.

Subiakto said the government had also issued a regulation
which obliged big companies bidding for government projects to
state in their tender applications about their partnership
program with small businesses and cooperatives.

The more activities the big companies gave to small business
and cooperatives, the bigger their chance to win the tender, he
said.

The government would every year issue a directory of projects
limited to small business and cooperatives, he said.

Also, the government would issue a regulation specifying the
sectors which were respectively limited to small business and
cooperatives and also open to big companies provided that they
cooperated with small businessmen and cooperatives.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs
(HIPMI) Bambang Wiyogo said the new policy showed that the
government was taking sides with small enterprises and
cooperatives.

In the past, despite the regulations on small business and
cooperatives privileges, the government did not clearly show its
standing toward the groups, he said.

"For me, it (the new policy) is a surprise. It's a new concept
of economic policy," he said. (jsk)