Jakarta – According to Ina Primiana, central executive of the Indonesian Economist Association (ISEI), digitalization could be one strategy to ensure the viability of women and youth-run micro, tiny, and medium companies (MSMEs).
“The COVID-19 epidemic has driven and pushed women and youth’s MSMEs to enter Industry 4.0, meaning doing business online or digitally due to changes in people’s spending patterns,” she said in a Friday webinar titled “The Empowerment of Women’s MSMEs for Financial Inclusion.”
According to the Saskawa Peace Foundation and Dalberg data, the number of Indonesian entrepreneurs has reached 21%, which is higher than the global average of 8%.
According to Primiana, Indonesia does not currently have a scarcity of entrepreneurs, as evidenced by the country ranking 45th out of 100 countries in the 2021 Entrepreneur Index.
However, according to the 2021 Global Innovation Index, Indonesian entrepreneurs are still less innovative than entrepreneurs in other nations, ranking 87th out of 132 countries.
Primiana emphasized the importance of creativity in the production of items and content for internet marketing by women and youth-run MSMEs.
“MSMEs must also embrace a startup mindset in order to develop faster, particularly to accelerate their company and target market,” she added.
Women and youth-led MSMEs must also be provided access so that their products may be recognized by a larger international market, she added.
MSME products, she believes, must be used by government officials and pushed through social media.
They must also be utilized for government operations or programs, government and state-owned firm spending, and participation in significant government exhibits.
