According to reporting from Antara News, Indonesia’s Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Ministry together with the Food and Drug Supervisory Authority (BPOM) have agreed to join forces to help micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) obtain product distribution permits and expand their market reach.
The decision was announced during a meeting with BPOM head, Taruna Ikrar in Jakarta on Friday (20/9/24,) where Cooperatives and SMEs Minister Teten Masduki drew attention to the need for standardization, saying it is vital for enhancing the quality of MSMEs and protecting domestic markets from the invasion of imported products.
Antara News reports that Ikrar highlighted the fact that despite the huge economic potential of Indonesian MSMEs, many of them still have not obtained product distribution permits from the authority, adding that out of about 10,000 MSMEs operating in the processed food sector, only around 6,000 are actually registered in the BPOM database.
Meanwhile, the BPOM has so far issued permits to 1,700 MSMEs that sell traditional medicines, supplements, and cosmetics. However, Ikrar said he believes that the number of MSMEs in the sector could reach thousands.
“In a bid to tap into this potential, we established collaboration with the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry, considering that the BPOM’s technical implementation units can only be found in 76 cities across Indonesia,” he said.
He further said that his side will collaborate with the ministry to provide mentoring and incentives to MSMEs to help them meet the requirements for obtaining permits.
The two institutions have also agreed to work hand in hand to augment human resource capacity in regions with the end objective of developing local MSMEs, according to Antara News.
Source: Antara News
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