Small businesses needs empowering, researcher says
Small businesses needs empowering, researcher says
JAKARTA (JP): The government should empower small-scale entrepreneurs to build a strong base for the nation's economy, a scholar said yesterday.
Cornelis LAY of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University told a discussion titled Islam and Nationalism: The Present Reality and Future Portraits that inadequate attention had been paid to small businesses.
"The lack of attention, from the economic point of view, is not because the sector has failed to give its real contribution but rather because it is difficult to measure its real contribution," he said.
Cornelis said that as long as the methodology to measure economic progress or setbacks focuses on the aggregate economy, the small scale economy, which by nature is partisan and informal, would be disadvantaged.
The Canada-trained political scientist said the so-called "people's economy" would play a crucial political and social role in the future.
Cornelis cited how the expansion of the so-called "black- market economy", which is largely controlled by small-scale entrepreneurs in Jakarta "has contributed immensely to overall national economic growth".
"This sector has reportedly made a substantial contribution to the economy in Latin America," said Cornelis, who is also a social studies researcher at the Inter-University Center at Gadjah Mada University.
The members of the sector, according to Cornelis, fulfill five functions; they are providers of recyclable materials, producers of cheap goods, consumers of mass-produced articles, salespeople and -- especially in Jakarta -- they make up a reservoir of cheap labor.
Jakarta
In Jakarta, the sector's presence is particularly demonstrated by more than 400,000 scavengers.
"They have taken the position as suppliers for the formal sector production process," Cornelis said. "The 'fleet' of scavengers has also made themselves the powerhouse for the billion-rupiah recycling business."
"By doing this they have also made themselves environmental workers."
Touching on the issue of how nationalism could help empower the small-scale economy, Cornelis said: "If we agree that discrimination undermines nationalism, then we should eradicate it. This should be realized by introducing policies which give the formal and informal sectors equal treatment."
"People's equal access to banking services, and other important economic facilities, like locations to do business in Jakarta, are important," he said.
Street vendors in Jakarta have often become victims of government policies and street hoodlums who get the backing of powerful people in the bureaucracy. (aan)