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Coinciding with its 54th anniversary, Bank Indonesia
officially launched four programs Monday focusing on the strengthening
of micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the provinces to help
accelerate the growth of the real sector.
The programs comprise the establishment of a task force to facilitate
the acceleration of regional economies, a pilot project to cluster SMEs
based on commodity and geographical groupings, an on-line service
providing business data and information, and a visitor center at BI's
headquarters, BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said.
They are all part of BI's commitment to improving the real sector in
the regions, especially the role of SMEs, added Burhanuddin.
The task force is tasked with finding solutions to the problems
hampering the strengthening of the real sector in different regions.
It's membership will consist of representatives from BI, provincial
leaderships, commercial banks, private companies and academic
institutions, and it is expected to function as a mediator and
guarantor for SMEs in securing loans from banks.
The task force has already established pilot projects in eight regions,
including Medan (revitalization of oil palm and rubber plantations),
Bandung (vanilla, corn and rice cultivation), Manado (corn
cultivation), Cirebon (cassava cultivation), Pontianak (orange groves),
Jambi (palm and rubber plantations), Kupang (seaweed farming), and
Purwokerto (goat raising).
As for the pilot projects to cluster SMEs based on commodity and
geographical groupings, Burhanuddin said that these were intended to
improve the bargaining positions of SMEs.
"SME clusters have been established in six provinces comprising Banten
for the promotion of emping mlinjo (rice crackers), West Java for
paprika, West Nusa Tenggara for seaweed, Central Java for rattan
furniture, East Java for shoes and North Sumatra for cassava."
Burhanuddin further explained that the on-line service would provide
up-to-the-minute information on business in Indonesia via the BI
website at www.bi.go.id.
The information service, which would provide both micro and macro
information, was expected to help improve the intermediation role of
the banks in channeling loans to SMEs.
Lack of capital is one of the many problems facing SMEs, the economic
mainstays in most of the country's provinces, as they attempt to grow
their businesses.
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