Street vendors need strategic locations

Street vendors need strategic locations

JAKARTA: Most street vendors were able raise the funds
necessary to start up business but lacked a strategic place to
run it, according to the results of a recent study.

The research, conducted by the Public Institute (LPM) of the
University of Indonesia, showed that the vendors had no problem
raising capital as they were able to borrow money from relatives
or friends.

Rusli Ramli, a professor at the School of Social and Political
Sciences who presented the results of the research over the
weekend, said that the most serious problem faced my vendors was
the lack of a strategic place from where to sell their
merchandise.

Consequently, vendors do not mind paying illegal fees as long
as they are allowed to occupy a strategic spot, even though there
is no guarantee against being evicted.

Street vendors also do not feel secure in their work, which
explains why they do not have high motivation to develop their
businesses.

Another problem of most vendors is that they do not have any
organizational, administrative or accounting skills, according to
Ramli.

Three hundred and fourteen venders were polled in the study.
Most were former farmers from outside Jakarta would had moved to
the capital to find work but had been forced to become street
vendors when they could not find a job in the formal sector.
--Antara