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ike or not, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) came into effect at the beginning of this year. It means everything will be more competitive and liberalized. Indeed, the competition among ASEAN member countries will be tougher and more demanding.

I am wondering whether our local three-wheeled motorbike industry is ready to face it. Recently, I met a friend namely Aden Achmad, who lives in Bandung city. He is a mechanic with physical disabilities, who is working at repairing or modifying three-wheeled motorbikes. According to this gentleman who has not had functional legs since birth, he can modify one or two three-wheeled motorbikes every month, yet he almost never turns away any customers.

According to disability activist Sri Lestari, a woman with physical disabilities who visited President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo last year using a three-wheeled motorbike, the number of people who need wheelchairs in Indonesia is between 2.5 million to 3 million. Thus, no wonder demand for three-wheeled motorbikes is high as well.

Like other small industries, the biggest challenges Achmad faces so far is how to get sufficient venture capital to improve his business and how to market his products widely. It is not always easy to convince donors or investors to support these businesses if it is only persons with disabilities advocating for them.

Therefore, the government needs to give more attention to businesses such as these and help people empower themselves. Because, not only may this business improve the economic welfare of people with disabilities, it also can empower more people with disabilities to be self-sufficient in their daily life.

If we browse the internet, we can find many variations of three-wheeled motorbikes, but be careful as not all those motorbikes are made by persons with disabilities! It is totally different if motorbikes are designed and developed by mass industry and handled by people without disabilities.

The mass industries might create attractive three-wheeled motorbikes, yet there are also downsides. They usually miscalculate other detail aspects that are usually only understood by people with disabilities. For instance, the motorbike must be customized so that a person with a disability can easily mount and dismount. Different people'€™s ability to do this can vary widely depending on their physical barriers. How easily they can control the gears. How easily they can access their other assistive devices, such as wheelchairs or crutches, from the vehicle.

 How easily they can renew the oil, change the tires and so forth. All these needs are dependent the specifics of a person'€™s unique physical barriers. Actually, to modify standard motorbikes into three-wheeled vehicles is not really expensive. The customers just need to pay Rp 5 to 7 million for a standard one. It is still cheaper compared with three-wheeled motorbikes that are mass produced.

In addition to affordability, with modification, customers are also able to make special requests in the design that best suit their physical barriers. Another positive aspect is that as the mechanic who conducts the work is also a person with disabilities, he or she can fully understand the needs of the customer.

In that regard, it is believed that with the implementation of AEC, this is the right moment for government to think hard about how to upgrade the three-wheeled motorbike businesses in Indonesia that are run by people with disabilities. It will be good also to involve more people with disabilities in developing our beloved country. So, is our local three-wheeled motorbike industry run by people with disabilities ready to compete with our neighbor countries? Let'€™s cross our fingers!

Tumpal Sujadi
A Social Worker in Bandung city