More than four-fifths of Indonesian SMEs have started to operate normal full hours. (Photo: AFP)The survey highlights the increasing confidence among consumers and businessesin the grassroots that Southeast Asia’s largest economy has managed to curbCOVID-19 infections, and stepped up its vaccination programme.
The survey on 505 respondents across Indonesia wasconducted by the affiliate of Indonesia's second-largest lender Bank Mandiri.
It revealed that 84.8 percent of the businesses have started operating normally.This compares with 35.2 percent which operated on normal hours in the middle oflast year - where another 34.5 percent of them then operated on limited hoursand 30.4 percent were forced to close temporarily.
As many as 49 percent of the respondents run their business in Java, the mostpopulous island, while 22 percent were in Sumatera, 16 percent in Kalimantan,and the remaining in other places across the world's largest archipelagicnation.
According to the Mandiri Institute survey, small businesses in Indonesia haveretrenched between two to four people since the pandemic started, whilemedium-sized businesses cut headcount by an average of 18./.
VNA
