Indonesia urges for support for women SME entrepreneurs

Support is planned for female small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs who require financial and competency advancement to develop.
By: | May 23, 2022

This call was made by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection to all parties, including private companies.

“Women play a quite significant role in national economic growth as 43% of the formal SMEs are owned by women and contribute to 9.1% of the total GDP,” Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Bintang Puspayoga told the press on the sidelines of the Second G20 Empower Plenary Meeting recently. 

One of the forms of support that continues to be provided by the ministry is increasing the number of advocates to provide guidance to women SME entrepreneurs across the country.

“The number of advocates continues to grow, from 26 to 60,” she added, noting that these advocates will continue to assist women SME entrepreneurs and evaluate their progress. 

The minister remarked that so far, the advocates have initiated 142 mother- and children-friendly villages by continuously providing assistance. She expressed optimism that the number would continue to rise in line with the increasing number of women SME entrepreneurs. 

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The minister added that one form of assistance provided by the private sector in empowering women SME entrepreneurs was offered by telecommunications company XL Axiata, with its programme called Sisternet, which has targeted almost all regions in Indonesia, according to Antara.