About 40,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have enjoyed additional business in their retail outlets after they obtained applications for digital payment services.

Through the application developed by Digital Maxima Indonesia (DMI), a subsidiary of PT Digital Mediatama Maxima (DMM), SMEs served their customers who wanted to pay their telephone and electricity bills as well to buy train and airplane tickets.

DMM president director Budianto Kusuma told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday that the SMEs grouped under the Sampoerna Retail Community (SRC) operated their business in towns all over the country.

Cigarette maker PT HM Sampoerna’s head of commercial affairs and business development Henny Susanto said the number of SRC members had steadily increased -- 57 in 2008, 50,000 in 2017, 100,000 in 2018 and 110,000 in 2019.

Apart from obtaining the digital payment application, SRC members also got training on entrepreneurship, marketing strategies, human resource development, storage management and product display.

The SRC was established in 2008 through a corporate social responsibility program of HM Sampoerna. (nal/bbn)