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Accelerating digital transformation in MSMEs through education
Yet, our education system has been built on the mindset of fear of failing examinations.
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Going digital: A local designer and member of a small and medium enterprises (SME) community in Malang, East Java, takes a picture of his product to be uploaded on the community’s digital marketplace on July 29, 2022. Digitalization is expected to expand markets for SMEs. (Antara/Ari Bowo Sucipto)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s East Asian tour last week brought home investment pledges and business deals worth at least US$13 billion (The Jakarta Post, July 29, 2022). In a meeting with South Korean CEOs, the President explained that Indonesia had conducted reforms in regulations and bureaucracy to open investment opportunities in strategic areas.
The call to the South Korean CEOs is aligned with the “three-pronged” strategy to boost Indonesia’s economy that was announced by the President back in August 2021. Three key aspects are the green economy, and digital and downstream strategies (the Post, Aug. 26, 2021).
The push to accelerate these strategies has been done in many key areas. Among them is the digital transformation of businesses. The government has developed a target to ensure that all 60 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are digitalized and participating in e-commerce platforms. Currently, only 20 percent are participating in the digital marketplace.
There have been many efforts to accelerate this process on the government’s part.
However, digitalizing MSMEs so that they can participate in e-commerce platforms is not sufficient. True digital transformation only happens when a business entity can create new digital value propositions for its users, not only just participating on platforms or simply shifting from a traditional to online market.
MSMEs should refrain from stopping short at the digitalization initiatives. Instead, they should move up the ladder as true digital MSMEs.
In fact, Indonesia will become competitive in the global market – as expected by the three-pronged strategy – only if we are able to unlock digital transformation up to this level. The big digital players from Indonesia, such as Tokopedia, Gojek, Traveloka and other household names, were able to seize the regional markets simply because they offered new digital value propositions to existing and untapped customer segments.
