President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo satisfied on Tuesday with 200 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in Banda Aceh to disburse the productive social support focused on helping them endure the pandemic slump.
A cake seller in the audience informed the President that his revenue had actually fallen to Rp 50,000(US$ 3.40) a day from Rp 150,000 a day throughout regular times.
“We hope with the extra [money] your business can get bigger. We hope the earnings can rebound although it may not be back to the normal level,” Jokowi stated in a virtual presser of the handover event on Tuesday.
The government released the assistance on Monday, moving Rp 2.4 million in money help to 1 million unbankable small businesses across the country.
As Indonesia’s economy relies largely on MSMEs, the support is implied to soften the economic effect of the pandemic, which caused Indonesia’s economy to contract 5.32 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the 2nd quarter of the year.
With a budget reaching Rp 22 trillion for the very first stage, the federal government is preparing to help 9.16 million MSMEs by the end of September. It is eyeing to cover 12 million enterprises in overall ultimately.
State-owned pawnshop business PT Pegadaian will disburse the aid to more than 59 percent of the 9.16 million receivers, state-owned banks to 32.09 percent, regional cooperatives and SME companies to 5.87 percent, the Cooperatives Movement to 1.77 percent, regional advancement banks to 0.88 percent and rural micro lending institutions to 0.03 percent.
With regard to the pandemic scenario, Jokowi said Aceh fared much better than provinces on Java island as shown by the activity on the streets that he observed. The province had tape-recorded 1,241 confirmed cases since Monday, accounting for 0.8 percent of the nationwide tally.
“I informed the governor to tighten control so that COVID-19 could ease off and would no longer exist in Aceh and in Indonesia,” said the President.
The government has designated Rp 123.47 trillion in the state spending plan for small businesses as part of its COVID-19 rescue plan totaling up to Rp 695.2 trillion. Of the budget for SME support, the federal government has invested 36 percent up until now.
