President Joko Widodo has even affirmed that 40%of the state budget spending will be allocated for purchasing domestic productsfrom MSMEs, Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki said in a statementreleased on October 24.
Through the import substitution policy,Indonesia will no longer need to import the products it can produce to meetdomestic needs, Masduki noted.
He added products made by foreign companies inIndonesia should have a domestic component level of 40%, and they are alsoobligated to partner with local firms.
The second policy to protect local businessplayers is the downstreaming and industrialisation of natural resources. It is not only for large-scale companies but must alsoinvolve local MSMEs. This policy also prohibits the export of raw miningproducts, which must be processed domestically to increase added value andcreate jobs.
The third policy is improving MSMEs' access tofinancing as the current share of banking credit for MSMEs is only 21%, farlower when compared to Thailand and Malaysia where it is already above 40%.
The fourth economic policy pertains to digitaltransformation, which regulates four aspects: platforms for businesses, theflow of imports of consumer goods, the trading system, and the competitivenessof domestic MSME products, according to the minister./.