Vice President's Special Staff Tina Talisa Urges SMEs and Women Entrepreneurs to Level Up
The Vice President’s Secretariat emphasised the importance of cross-sector collaboration in strengthening SMEs and empowering women in the economy through the Silaturahmi and Collaboration Dialogue forum held at the Vice President’s Secretariat Auditorium in Jakarta on Tuesday (11/3/2026).
Special Staff to the Vice President, Tina Talisa, stated that this forum is part of the directives from the President and Vice President to strengthen the foundation of the people’s economy through synergy among various parties.
“As part of the directives from the President and Vice President in strengthening the foundation of the people’s economy, we are organising a silaturahmi and cross-ministry, agency, business world, and civil society organisation collaboration dialogue,” said Tina Talisa, quoted from her official Instagram account @tina_talisa, on Wednesday (18/3/2026).
The forum, held in the spirit of International Women’s Day, was attended by representatives from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), BPS (Statistics Indonesia), Ministry of Investment and Downstreaming/BKPM, BPJPH (Halal Product Assurance Agency), Ministry of SMEs, OJK (Financial Services Authority), KNEKS (National Committee for Sharia Economy and Finance), POM Agency, INDEF, UI, CORE Indonesia, as well as various strategic partners such as Fatayat NU, Aisyiyah, HIPMI (Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association), IWAPI (Indonesian Women Entrepreneurs Association), KNTI (Indonesian Traditional Fishermen’s Union) Women ICMI (Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals Association), to business entities such as PNM, Bank BRI, GoTo, Grab, and Sampoerna.
This former TV journalist explained that the forum serves as a space to unite efforts in promoting the strengthening of SMEs and women’s economic empowerment to proceed in a more coordinated and impactful manner.
“The aim is to promote the strengthening of SMEs and women’s economic empowerment,” she said.
Additionally, Tina highlighted the absence of clear indicators in defining SME advancement. According to her, this poses a challenge in driving measurable business transformation.
“We don’t yet have criteria for what is meant by levelling up. So we often say, let’s encourage levelling up. How do we define levelling up? From micro to small? Because of adding employees? Because of increasing assets? Because of increasing turnover? Because of increasing financial literacy or what?” she said.
In the discussion, various stakeholders shared views on the challenges and opportunities in strengthening SMEs and women’s economy. Deputy for Community Empowerment, Population, and Employment at Bappenas, Maliki, highlighted the still low proportion of female entrepreneurs in Indonesia.
“If we look at the proportion of female entrepreneurs, it’s probably only around 37%,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy for Investment Climate Development at the Ministry of Investment/BKPM, Riyatno, stressed the importance of business legality for SME actors, especially micro enterprises, through obtaining a Business Identification Number (NIB).
“We invite stakeholders to work together on how to ensure that SME actors, especially micro ones, are willing to have an NIB,” said Riyatno.
From a data perspective, Deputy for Social Statistics at BPS, Nashrul Wajdi, assessed that there is still much homework to ensure that women’s economic contributions are truly optimal.
“We still have a lot of homework; our women work perhaps out of necessity, because they need to, because they must. But then, does their contribution sufficiently provide the contribution we expect?” he said.
General Chair of the IWAPI DPP, Nita Yudi, affirmed that women play an important role in the business world and are no less capable than men in facing challenges.
“So women must also strive, not just men. We see that women are the strongest, the most resilient,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chair of the Women’s MPP Education Division of ICMI, Euis Amalia, highlighted the importance of halal certification as part of product competitiveness, including for SMEs.
“There are no exceptions; all products entering and circulating in Indonesia, even American products, must eventually have halal certification. This must become a commitment,” said Euis.
On the other hand, Chair of the Womenpreneur Autonomous Body of BPP HIPMI, Mellisa Hamid, emphasised the importance of ecosystem support for female entrepreneurs to develop optimally.
“There are many female entrepreneurs, and we need a support system, also support from the government, and a healthy platform for female friends to create,” she said.