Constraints and Opportunities for Indonesia’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
INDONESIA STUDIES PROGRAMME WEBINAR
About the Webinar
Indonesia’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) make up 99.99% of the total enterprises in the country, with 62.9 million units in 2017. In total, the country’s MSMEs contributed 60% to the country’s domestic income, which in 2017 amounted to Rp 13,600 trillion. Most of the MSMEs are informal, i.e., they do not have a tax registration number. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the demise of many of them, mainly concentrated in the retail sector. Since March 2020, MSMEs have lost 70-90% of their profits, forcing them to shift gear and seek new markets through saturated online platforms. This trend has led to increasingly stringent competition among wholesalers and retailers alike. The Indonesian government has enacted policies to assist MSMEs through mentoring, cash disbursement, credit subsidy, market protection, co-optation, and the strengthening of local cooperatives through income diversification and good governance measures. The success of government policies hinges on factors related to inclusion, equity and flexibility/adaptability. In this webinar, the three speakers will highlight past, present, and possible future trajectories to achieving “Ekonomi Kerakyatan” (i.e. economic growth and development by the people and for the people) through accounts of the country’s economic ideology and various actors. They will envision Indonesia’s journey towards a fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable economic growth and development.
About the Speakers
Astrid Meilasari-Sugiana is a lecturer and researcher at Universitas Bakrie’s Political Science Department, teaching political ecology, political economy and political sociology. She graduated from The University of Melbourne’s School of Land and Food Resources with a Ph.D. in natural resource governance. She is a consultant for the various ministries and donor agencies in Indonesia. She was a research fellow in The World Bank and her research interests run along the lines of sociology, governance, public policy and international political economy.
Gunardi Endro is a lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences – Universitas Bakrie. He teaches micro/macro-economics, business ethics, engineering ethics, and corporate governance. He graduated from the National University of Singapore with M.Soc.Sci. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Philosophy. He is an advocate for the institutionalization of transparency and integrity in both private and public institutions, and was a consultant for the Extractive Industries Transparencies Initiative (EITI) under the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and various non-governmental institutions. His research interests are mostly conceptual and multidisciplinary along the lines of applied philosophy, applied ethics, governance, corporate culture, business management, and economics.
Suwandi serves as a lecturer in Universitas Bakrie, focusing on studies of entrepreneurship, cooperatives, and business management. He initiated Business Incubator and Centre of Entrepreneurship for students in various universities in Indonesia. Suwandi earned both his Ph.D. in Cooperatives Economics and M.Sc. in Cooperatives Management from Universitas Padjajaran, Bandung. His research includes entrepreneurship, small-medium enterprises and local cooperatives, corporate financing and money laundering.
Registration
This webinar will be delivered online entirely. You can join the webinar at the specified date and time using devices (computer, phone, or tablet) with internet connection.
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For the best experience, please mute your microphone. If you have questions for the speakers, please key in your questions via the Q&A, stating your name and affiliation. The moderator will field them to the speakers during the Q&A session.