The government aims to spur the growth of Indonesia’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) by boosting the role of state-owned department store Sarinah and SMESCO, a government institution responsible for training and facilitating small and medium enterprises, in its efforts.

“SMESCO will focus on providing coaching to improve the MSMEs’ products while Sarinah will focus on marketing those products,” State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir said in a press conference broadcasted on Monday.

Erick said he wanted to improve the synergy between Sarinah and SMESCO to eliminate the sense of competition between the two state-owned institutions, adding that they should work together to support Indonesian MSMEs.

The minister, who also leads the government’s COVID-19 Response and Economic Recovery Committee, said the strategy was part of a collaboration with the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry to support MSMEs and national economic recovery amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Read also: MSMEs expect continued pandemic pressure even if operating online: Survey

The government also launched on Monday an MSME digital platform called PaDi UMKM, which would allow SOEs to channel transaction and funding to MSMEs. 

Erick has also issued a ministerial regulation requiring tenders for SOE projects with the capital expenditure of between Rp 250 million (US$16,951) and Rp 14 billion to be opened for MSMEs.

“This is to develop a healthy ecosystem for our MSMEs,” he said.

Indonesia currently has more than 60 million MSMEs, which account for 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).