Soerjadi criticizes wealthy entrepreneurs

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja criticized wealthy entrepreneurs yesterday for not being serious about fostering the development of small businesses in the city.

Surjadi said that, while many entrepreneurs are involved in the activities of a variety of organizations, they fail to respond to calls of smaller enterprises for assistance.

"Our businessmen are very clever when it comes to creating good concepts or establishing business associations aimed at helping small entrepreneurs, but they are not so good on implementation," the governor told a meeting between small entrepreneurs and representatives of the banking sector and state-owned companies.

Yesterday's meeting was attended by about 500 people from small companies, large companies and the banking sector. The purpose of the meeting was to increase cooperation between small businesses and conglomerates.

Surjadi also expressed concern about the limited funding provided by state-owned companies for the promotion of small business development.

This year funds provided by state-owned companies for the purpose have only reached about Rp 2.4 billion (US$1.09 million), he said, adding that the money had been distributed to only 26 cooperatives and 331 small businesses.

"This amount is very small compared with the number of cooperatives and small businesses who are badly in need of assistance," he added.

According to data collected by the Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 628,282 small businesses in Jakarta in 1992. About 525,500, or 83 percent of those, had a capitalization of less than Rp 50 million; 97,962, or 15 percent, had a capitalization of between Rp 50 million and Rp 500 million; and the remaining 4,847, or 2 percent, had a capitalization of between Rp 500 million and Rp 2 billion.

Surjadi said that the assistance of large companies is important to help improve the competitiveness of the small business. (yns)