PORTALJABAR, DISTRICT. GARUT - The Garut Regency Regional Government (Pemdakab) together with the Mercy Corps Indonesia Foundation (YMCI) held a meeting at the Santika Hotel, supported by the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, committed to increasing the capacity of more than 22 thousand Small and Medium Enterprises (UKM) in Garut Regency by 2026 through the Program Strive Indonesia, Tarogong Kaler (22/2/2024).

Head of the Garut Regency Cooperatives and Small and Micro Enterprises Service (Diskop UKM), Ridzky Ridzhanudin, explained that at least 40 percent of the SMEs being encouraged are owned by women, with a focus on the food and beverage, crafts, non-furniture, fashion and businesses in tourist areas. .

This program targets three pillars: Go Digital, Get Capital, and Strengthening the Ecosystem, which will be implemented over the next 2-3 years.

He emphasized the importance of collaboration with various parties, including banks, to create bridges for SMEs. It is hoped that this program can be a stimulus for business to business partnerships

"So, let's say that the SMEs that we have educated, coached, mentored, (and) trained in various ways, will be able to relate smoothly with other businesses, for example with banking," he said.

Ridzky hopes that the Strive Indonesia Program can become a strategic program that gets attention and support from all parties,

Apart from that, added Ridzky, the Acting Regent of Garut can make special policies to make the SME empowerment program a success in Garut Regency.

"This program must run continuously (and) sustainably, this program cannot be photographed in one year," he said.

Glory Sunarto, Program Manager of Strive Indonesia, explained the importance of progress and action plans at the meeting.

He also explained, Initial data showed that there were around 28 thousand SMEs proposed by the UKM Diskop. After verification, 22,805 SMEs were the initial targets, with 14,121 female business actors and 8,684 male business actors.

"We will try to reach all of them, hopefully some of them are in line with the program targets or collaborate with other partners," he said.

Through MicroMentor, Mercy Corps Indonesia's digital platform, business actors will get information, training and mentoring online.

Apart from that, business actors who need access to financing or credit will be facilitated in accessing formal financial institutions with Bank BJB as one of the partners.

Glory said that this program accommodates input from SME players to be conveyed as learning to the government, in order to increase financial literacy, access to financing and digital business development.

"So that in the future these things can become input that we bring to higher levels of government, to be conveyed as part of the lessons learned program," said Glory.

As for the output to be produced from the Strive Indonesia Program, added Glory, SMEs have financial literacy skills, get access to loans or credit, and have digital business development either through digital marketing, e-commerce platforms or going export so that the market expands.