On Wednesday, September 15th, 2021, Member of the Presidential Advisory Council (Wantimpres) Muhamad Mardiono accompanied by the Secretary of the Wantimpres Member, Mohammed Ali Berawi, Head of the Wantimpres Data and Information Bureau, Arfan Sahib, and the Wantimpres Expert Team held a meeting with the President Director and other BRI’s board of directors to discuss the work program support for rural economic development and MSMEs.
By taking into account that around 45% of the population or 119.7 million people live and spread across 74,961 villages in Indonesia, Mardiono stated that the development of the rural economy and MSMEs is one of the priorities of the national development programs. The problem of high economic costs and low purchasing power of rural communities are expected to be solved by increasing the usage of village products, either independently or by cooperation between the villages.
On the other hand, despite the limited capital and available opportunities, Indonesian MSMEs have been able to become one of the main contributors to the country’s GDP. MSMEs have provided job opportunities for around 116 million workers.
However, as the increasing of market competition goes by and the existence of business capital and operational constraints for MSME entrepreneurs, then the state support through government-owned banks, plays an important role in strengthening the production and competitiveness of MSMEs.
Mardiono continues to encourage policies and work programs to comprehensively strengthen the MSMEs, from upstream to downstream through the efforts to increase MSME productivity and strengthen traditional markets as a place to sale and absorb the local and national products.
In this meeting, Mardiono also appreciated BRI’s efforts to digitize services to be more effective and efficient as well as its contribution to lending and stimulus assistance for MSMEs in Indonesia.
Mardiono’s Visit to BRI for Strengthening MSME programs and Rural Economy
