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To develop partnerships between Indonesian small and medium
enterprises and European companies, the Agency for the Assessment and
Application of Technology's Business Technology Center (BTC-BPPT)
facilitated a gathering Friday for German businesspeople and local SME
entrepreneurs.
"Our aim is to create a closer relationship between local SMEs and
foreign businesses so that our SMEs will be able to compete on the
global market," said BTC-BPPT director Bambang S. Pujantiyo.
The gathering was part of a project called the Indonesian Network for
Technology-Industry Matching (INTIM), which is funded by a one-year
grant of Rp 3 billion (US$329,670) from the European Union-Small
Project Facility Program.
INTIM is a technology-based business network system that provides a
database of local SMEs in order to facilitate the matching of the
technology needed by local SMEs and that offered by foreign companies
interested in building partnerships with them. After being introduced
in major cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Malang, Salatiga,
Batam and Makassar, INTIM now has some 500 local SMEs taking part in
the program.
Representatives of some 40 SMEs attended Friday's gathering. Their
businesses operate in areas that include the production of equipment to
prevent gasoline evaporation and fire risk at gas stations, the
designing of cost-effective contact center services for companies, and
the processing of vegetable oil into biofuel.
The Business Development and Technology Transfer Corporation of
Schleswig-Holstein (WTSH) was in attendance as the representative of 26
German companies. WTSH functions as a one-stop agency for enterprises
engaged in business and innovation activities that wish to expand their
operations to Schleswig-Holstein.
The 26 German companies operate in various areas, including
marine-aquaculture, energy, electronics, health, IT, manufacturing and
agro-industry.
The latest figures from the State Ministry for Cooperatives, and Small
and Medium Enterprises reveal that the number of micro, small and
medium enterprises nationwide stands at about 45 million, providing
jobs for nearly 78 million workers, or 96.8 percent of the national
workforce. SMEs contributed 54.2 percent to 2006's GDP of Rp 1.48
trillion.
Bambang said that partnerships in technology, capital enhancement,
market access and production-capacity development could improve the
quality of local products so as to enable them to meet international
standards. In addition, he explained, overseas companies could also
reap benefits from intellectual property royalties, profit-sharing and
market expansion.
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