Indonesia Aims to Strengthen & Grow Womenpreneurs

• Rachmat Pambudy, the Minister of National Development Planning, talked about the focus of the Indonesian government on women entrepreneurs
• The importance of sustainable development is being given great emphasis
• The statements were released in an official statement, and the location was Jakarta

According to Minister of National Development Planning Rachmat Pambudy, one of Indonesia's goals is to promote the success of women entrepreneurs by creating a new generation of strong and competitive females who play an important role in the country's economic development.

Rachmat’s remarks come after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning, Padjadjaran University, and the Nuraa Women’s Institute for establishing a center to support the creation and growth of small- and micro-enterprises owned by women.

"I believe this partnership will strengthen the economic empowerment of women in Indonesia by providing a more productive and sustainable environment for business," said Rachmat.

Rachmat went on to say that national development is closely linked to the strength of that nation's development, along with entrepreneurship, and that the development of new entrepreneurs (particularly women entrepreneurs) must continue if the nation is to achieve its goals.

According to him, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor indicates that in developed countries, at least 10 percent of the population is entrepreneurs. In Indonesia, the estimate is still only 2 percent, meaning a need for even greater collective effort.

He pointed out the potential of women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises, which are estimated to make up about 37 percent of the total 56.7 million business operators in Indonesia, most of whom are operating micro-scale businesses. However, most women-owned MSMEs are in the informal economy, which has low value addition.

To address these challenges, the minister said that the focus should be on building the capacity of the businesses, the ability of the women to manage the businesses, access to finance, as well as the ability to access the markets and integrate into the value chain.