Young entrepreneurs still left behind, need govt's boost to grow: Dialogue

Wahyoe Boediwardhana ,  THE JAKARTA POST ,  MALANG   |  Thu, 06/25/2009 11:23 AM  |  The Archipelago

Indonesia is still behind other Asian countries in term of entrepreneurship, and requires an aggressive move by the government to help shape up the country's economy, a dialogue has concluded.

The dialogue, organized by state lender Bank Mandiri and attended by 660 prospective young entrepreneurs from 11 state and private universities, revealed the growth rate of young Indonesian entrepreneurs accounted for only 0.18 percent of the total population annually, less then the ideal minimum bar of 2 percent.

The figure was far below Singapore's annual young entrepreneur growth rate of between 5 percent and 7 percent. Such a low growth rate, coupled with high unemployment figures, is attributable to the country's education system that results in university graduates becoming jobseekers, rather than job creators, said Bank Mandiri region 8 head Jiantok Hardjiman.

To help tackle this issue, he said, Bank Mandiri was trying this year to educate, motivate and assist reliable young entrepreneurs that graduated from state and private universities in 33 provinces. Those entrepreneurs are expected to grow their micro, small and medium enterprises and help create jobs accordingly, he said.

"We managed to assist 1,057 young entrepreneurs from 24 provinces last year. Our target is now higher than that," Jiantok after the dialog Tuesday in Malang, East Java.

According to Bank Mandiri, the company targets more than 5,000 young prospective entrepreneurs from 103 state and private universities this year as part of its corporate social responsibility programs.

Bank Mandiri commercial banking director Zulkifli Zaini said the company would assist state and private university graduates.

"We may also provide loans if their business feasibilities are good."

At the forum, Jiantok cited the successful story of university graduate Henky Eko Sriyantono. In early 2006, he chose to run Malang meatball and Surabaya chicken soup businesses in Jakarta, with an initial capital of Rp 2.5 million (US$240).

He now has opened 101 outlets in 27 cities, employing at least four workers at each outlet. He earns Rp 100 million in total net monthly income and plans to open five new meatball and chicken soup outlets in Singapore this year.

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