JAKARTA, Jan 9 Asia Pulse – The Indonesian government will help 2,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sell their products through the Internet.
“The SMEs which will be given the opportunity to enjoy this government facility will be those with leading products from across Indonesia,” spokesperson of the Cooperatives and SME Ministry, Hasan Jauhari, said here on Jan 3.
He said his side has established cooperation with a software company, Martech, in the preparation of an Internet software program offering the products to buyers throughout the world.
“We have projected 500 buyers to whom the SME poducts will be offered,” he said.
Hasan said his side had allocated about Rp 3.7 billion (US$386,540) for the project from the ministry`s 2005-2014 budget.
He hoped that the project could be launched in March this year.
Several hundreds of the products would be offered by the SMEs including handicraft goods, furniture, garments, agricultural products, processed food, and spices.
“Under the program, data on the products will be sent straight to the buyers` websites,” he said.
The program, he said, was aimed at boosting the export of SME products which was predicted to increase by 19.2 per cent to Rp130.36 trillion compared to last year`s Rp109.363 trillion.
Besides the existing traditional markets such as Japan, the US and Europe, Indonesia will also focus its exports to the Middle East and Africa.
“In the two regions, the standard quality being applied to handicraft products was not too high so that most of our SMEs still have wide opportunities,” he said.
The leading products in the regions include textile, shoes and slippers.
However, he also warned against India`s threat posed by its well established industries.
“China`s mass production strategy also applied by India can affect the products of our SMEs on the overseas market. Therefore, we have to be pro-active in building a strong market for our SMEs,” he said.
(ANTARA)
