In this pandemic situation, several problems also emerged in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). To overcome various problems caused by the pandemic, one of the efforts of the Indonesian government in 2020 was to create a National Economic Recovery (PEN) program.
SBM ITB invited Dr. Panutan S. Sulendrakusuma, SE., MT, Ak., to talk more about it on Wednesday, (3/3/2021). MSMEs have a very important role in Indonesia. Based on statistics of BPS, micro and small businesses contributed 97.
There were at least three main problems faced by small and medium enterprises in Indonesia. First, the problem of legal entities, most of which were not officially registered. Second, the low level of technology-mastery due to the lack of education. The last was marketing problems such as the absence of product branding.
In this pandemic situation, micro, small and medium enterprises were facing the problem of decreasing purchasing power. Besides that, the reduced mobility and disruption of flow between countries also constituted problems. “Meanwhile, from the production side, problems arose due to disruption of supply chains and business financing,” Panutan explained.
To overcome various problems caused by the pandemic, one of the efforts of the Indonesian government in 2020 to create a National Economic Recovery (PEN) program. The PEN program aimed to accelerate Indonesia’s economic recovery. It started from health and social aspects to providing intensive efforts and supports for MSMEs.
In his presentation, he also showed real forms of support for MSMEs through the PEN program, including interest subsidies for MSMEs (KUR and Non-KUR), productive assistance for micro-businesses, and business credit distribution. In the long term, government support for MSMEs includes infrastructures, ease of fiscal financing, ease of import-export, and tax incentives.
He also informed that several survey institutions have evaluated the running of the PEN program. One of them is LPEM FEB UI which has conducted a survey of 3000 MSMEs. The result was that the majority of MSMEs have been able to survive a pandemic situation because of the PEN program, even as many as 29% experienced an increase in business turnover.
The ITB Master of Engineering alumnus also added, in 2021, APBN will be more focused on three things, which are, handling Covid-19 and accelerating economic recovery, the second is reforming education, health and social protection and the last is reforming the bureaucracy. The government has always made various efforts to overcome this situation so that economic growth is expected to occur in 2021.
“With the PEN program, it is hoped that it can be a stimulus for economic growth in the first quarter. As it is known that MSMEs make a major contribution to the national economy, therefore the MSME sector is one of the government’s focuses in this pandemic,” Panutan said.