TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsCo-ops, SMEs told to standardize products for promoting abroad
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) participate in a trade expo at the Jakarta Convention Center. (Kompas/Heru Sri Kumoro)
C
ooperatives and businesses are advised to register their products with the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry and to achieve product standards so the ministry can help promote them abroad, a ministry official has said.
Secretary to the minister Agus Muharram said in Jakarta over the weekend that the products made by Indonesian cooperatives and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had started to gain popularity overseas, especially in Asian countries.
“Right now, those in demand are fashion, accessories and furniture,” Agus told The Jakarta Post, adding that food and beverage (F&B) products were still facing difficulties in entering foreign markets, which had standards for imported products.
Therefore, he said, the managements of cooperatives and SMEs in the F&B manufacturing sector needed to standardize the quality and safety of their products.
Read also: Kadin asks IDX to ease rules, allow SMEs to go public“It is better for cooperatives and SMEs to eye the foreign markets. Once they can meet national standards, there will be fewer additional requirements when they want to sell their products in other countries,” Agus said.
Based on the Central Statistics Agency's 2015 data, SMEs and cooperatives contributed more than half of the country’s GDP, contributing US$529 billion (61.41 percent) of $861.3 billion GDP, while they exported only 15.7 percent of their products and commodities. (dea/bbn)
