Bringing the Internet within reach of 100 million Indonesians from 20 kms above Earth

Google Blog, Thursday, October 29, 2015  

In Indonesia today, only about 1 out of every 3 people are connected to the Internet. And even though most of their connections are painfully slow, they’re doing some pretty incredible things. Startups like motorcycle delivery service Go-Jek are building impressive adaptations to Indonesia’s unique challenges, while small businesses like fashionable hijab shop HiJup are using the web to redefine marketplaces.

Still, a majority of Indonesians don’t have access to the educational, cultural, and economic opportunities of the Internet. That’s why we’re pleased to announce that Indonesia’s top three mobile network operators—Indosat, Telkomsel, and XL Axiata—have agreed to begin testing Project Loon balloon-powered Internet over Indonesia in 2016. These tests represent an important step toward bringing all of Indonesia online.

From left to right: Ririek Adriansyah, CEO of Telkomsel; Dian Siswarini, CEO of
XL Axiata; Alexander Rusli, CEO of Indosat; Mike Cassidy, VP of Project Loon;
Sergey Brin, President, Alphabet Inc

Loon balloons act like floating mobile phone towers; flying on the stratospheric winds at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, each balloon beams an Internet connection down to the ground, and as one drifts out of range, another moves in to take its place. Loon can help telecommunications companies extend their networks; high in the sky, we can help overcome the difficulties of spreading equipment across an archipelago of 17,000 islands of jungles and mountains, providing connectivity to even the most remote islands.

Project Loon balloons travel approximately 20 km above the Earth’s surface in

 the stratosphere. Winds in the stratosphere are stratified, and each layer of wind 

varies in speed and direction. By moving with the wind, the balloons can be 

arranged to form one large communications network

  

Over the next few years, we’re hoping Loon can partner with local providers to put high-speed LTE Internet connections within reach of more than 100 million currently unconnected people—that’s enough speed to read websites, watch videos, or make purchases. From Sabang all the way to Merauke, many of these people live in areas without any existing Internet infrastructure, so we hope balloon-powered Internet could someday help give them access to the information and opportunity of the web.

But it’s not the only step Google is taking toward making the Internet both accessible and useful for people in Indonesia. Android One phones are helping to make high-quality smartphones more accessible in a country where most people first access the Internet on a mobile device. And along with that, we’re working to ease the use of data with features sure as Search Lite, which streamlines search so pages load more quickly, or by optimizing web pages so that they require less data to load. Indonesia is also one of the first countries where YouTube users can take videos offline to watch later during periods of low or no Internet connectivity.

We’re also doing what we can to ensure that language isn’t a barrier to the opportunities of the web. Google Translate was introduced for Bahasa in 2008, and more recently we’ve expanded it to Sundanese, a language that’s spoken by nearly 40 million people living on the island of Java.

Soon we hope many more millions of people in Indonesia will be able to use the full Internet to bring their culture and businesses online and explore the world even without leaving home. And for those of you who’ve never been to this country of rich culture and natural beauty, we invite you to head over to Google Street View to explore the famous temples at Borobudur and Prambanan.

Posted by Mike Cassidy, Vice President, Project Loon

RI, South Korea set up Green Business Center

Antara News, Fri, July 29 2011

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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and South Korea have set up a Green Business Center (GBC) through which they cooperate to develop green cooperatives, small- and medium-scale enterprises.

Syarief Hasan. (ANTARA)

Indonesia`s minister of cooperatives and small and medium businesses (UKM) Sjarifuddin Hasan said after the dedication of the GBC here on Friday that the institution was a follow-up of an agreement made by the Indonesian ministry of cooperatives and UKM with the Small and Medium Business Administration of the Republic of Korea.

"The GBC is located on the sixth floor of SME Tower Main Building on Jalan Gatot Subroto Kav 94," he said.

He said the GBC is an incubator for boosting cooperation in the development of green technology-based industries for cooperatives and UKM.

"Right now there are already 13 tenants joining in the GBC namely 10 from South Korea and three from Indonesia," he said.

Sjarifuddin hoped the GBC would in the future become the center of entrepreneurship development, transfer of technology especially green technology and boost business partnership between Indonesian and South Korean small and medium businesses.

On the occasion of the Administrator of Small and Medium Business of the Republic of Korea, Kim Dong-Sun, said the GBC would become one of the institutes that would develop green small and medium industries in Indonesia.

"We have the technology which is ready to be implemented while Indonesia has rich natural resources," he said.

He hoped the GBC would encourage transfer of technology to Indonesia for the development of eco-friendly small and medium businesses and further develop business partnership between Indonesian and South Korean small and medium businesses.

In the cooperation agreement South Korea expressed readiness to exchange experience in policy and program development to empower eco-friendly small and medium industries.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Google to open representative office in Indonesia

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Fri, 07/22/2011

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said that the company intends to open a representative office to expand its internet business in Indonesia.

The statement was made during a meeting with Vice President Boediono on Friday.

According to vice president spokesman Yopie Hidayat, as quoted by kompas.com, in the one-hour meeting Schmidt stated that the representative office in Indonesia would be ready before 2012.

Yopie said that the multinational corporation investing in internet search, cloud computing and advertising technologies wanted to develop programs to connect Indonesian small and medium sized enterprises with foreign buyers.

He added that Google had been involved in serious talks with the Communications and Information Technology Ministry regarding its business plan and would soon prepare a memorandum of understanding with the government.

Govt to develop biogas for small industry

Antara News, Tue, February 22 2011 

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government will develop biogas technology as an energy source for small and medium scale industries, a senior official said.

Director General for Small and Medium Industries Euis Saedah said here on Monday that biogas could serve as a solution to the use of efficient energy for small and medium industrias.

"The development of biogas has yet to be aimed at supporting the existence of 3.8 million IKMs while in fact the development of bio gas is quite suitable with IKMs` condition which are small scale and separate with each other," she said.

She said that the number of IKMs now reached 3.8 million with employed about 8.75 million workers. About 90 percent of these industries were small industries and the remaining ones were middle scale with groups of sectors such as food, chemicals, construction materials, clothing, handicraft and metal as well as electronics.

In the meantime, Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Suryo Bambang Sulisto said the government had not yet provided incentive for the development of biogas in Indonesia.

"The incentive is needed so that the people would turn to alternative energy," she said.

She said that since it was developed 20 years ago, there were now only 14,000 units of biogas development devices in Indonesia.

"Kadin has a target to install one million units in the next three years," she said.

Editor: Aditia Maruli

Japan to help business recovery process in Yogya

Antara News, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 11/15/2010 6:45 PM

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has pledged a program to support economic recovery activities of small and medium enterprises in Yogyakarta and Central Java affected by the eruptions of Mount Merapi.

Speaking after a meeting between Indonesia’s Vice President Boediono and JICA president Sadako Ogata in Tokyo on Monday, Vice Presidential spokesman Yopie Hidayat told reporters the program was being prepared.

“Mrs Ogata said JICA was preparing a program to help the recovery of small and medium enterprises after the natural disaster that has wiped out markets and buyers and disrupted businesses,” Yopie said, as quoted by Antara.

“The recovery is important not just to the victims, but also for the economy. It is crucial to reinstate life, to mend ruined jobs and businesses in Yogya, such as the craft industry, which had been developing well using local sources, but is now badly impacted by the volcanic eruptions,” he said.

JICA’s support will come in the form of financial and technical supports, including management counseling for small and medium enterprises, Yopie said.

The cooperation with JICA, he added, will be part of the government’s rehabilitative measures in Yogyakarta and Central Java in the aftermath of the Mount Merapi disaster.

RI, Mozambique to cooperate in cooperative empowerment

Antara News, Saturday, June 5, 2010 21:02 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia and Mozambique will soon cooperate in Small and Medium Enterprises Cooperative (KUKM) empowerment.

Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Sjarifuddin Hassan said here on Friday that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the cooperation would be signed on Monday, June 7, 2010.

"We are going to exchange ideas and experiences through the KUKM empowerment cooperation with Mozambique," the minister said, adding that the MoU was about the implementation of such a cooperation between the two countries.

He said capacity building for the KUKM players from Indonesia and Mozambique would also be part of the cooperation.

The KUKM minister said Mozambican ambassador to Indonesia and the industry minister of the country were scheduled to be present to sign the memorandum of understanding with KUKM Ministry.

"The government of Mozambique has discovered that our achievement in cooperatives and small and medium enterprises sector was high enough, although we have yet to be satisfied about it," the minister said.

Sjarifuddin Hassan said he has earlier explored KUKM empowerment cooperation with a number of countries, among others with Egypt to empower water hyacinth as part handicrafts industry, with Japan for One village One Product (OVOP), with the United States in KUKM empowerment, and with Palestine for human resources training.

"In such a cooperation there should be a mutual benefit, in a sense of what we can give to those countries and what we can get from them," the minister said.

ADB, FMO of the Netherlands to Share Risk on Trade Finance in Asia

Asian Development Bank

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed a risk distribution agreement with the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), which will lead to greater and wider support for trade in ADB's developing member countries.

The risk distribution agreement is part of ADB's $1 billion Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP), which provides loans and guarantees through, and in conjunction with, international banks and ADB's developing member country banks to support international trade transactions.

Read the full news release.

Related Article:

Asia to launch joint credit facility

Malang Prepares Ceramics Tourism Village

Tempo Interactive, Wednesday, 17 March, 2010 | 20:45 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Malang:The Malang Cooperation and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Office is preparing the Dinoyo Ceramics Center as a Ceramics tourism village.

The aim is to increase the sales of ceramics and also to increase the number of tourists visiting Malang.

According to the Head of the Malang Cooperation and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Office, Asih Tri Rachmi, in the last five years the sales of Dinoyo ceramics have kept on decreasing.

“This is because they could not compete with imported ceramics from China,” said Asih, on Wednesday (17/3).

Asih is targeting that starting from mid-2010, the tourism village could start to operate after the issuance of the decision letter from the East Java Governor, Soekarwo.

Even though it is still not official, craftspeople at the Dinoyo Ceramics Center are already running the tourism village program.

When visitors come, there are local guides available.

Besides that, they can also watch ceramics-making by the craftspeople.

“Tourists can also try to make ceramics,” said Tri Asih.

The Malang government has allocated funds of Rp450 million for the tourism village.

Of this amount, Rp150 million has been allocated to build show houses, fixing the entrance gate and repairing production houses used for workshops.

Meanwhile Rp300 million is being used to train the industrial center’s personnel, raw material provision assistance, local guide training and comparative studies with other tourism villages.

In the Dinoyo ceramics center there are more than 100 craftspeople.

Twenty of them have joined the Dinoyo Ceramics Maker Association.

“We are ready to become a tourism village,” said Ahmad Suhariono, one of the craftspeople.

Besides the Dinoyo ceramic center, there are two other centers to be transformed into tourism villages.

The two centers are the batik industry center in Bandung Rejosari Village and the tempe industry center in Sanan Village.

BIBIN BINTARIADI

Govt to raise electricity tariffs this year

Antara News, Thursday, January 28, 2010 22:14 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government will go ahead with its plan to raise electricity tariffs this year as part of its efforts to reduce its subsidy burden, an energy official said.

The government was waiting for the proper time to raise the electricity tariffs, Director General of Electricity and Energy Utilization at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry J Purwono said on Thursday.

"But they are to be raised this year," he said.

He said the government had planned to increase electricity tariffs for medium- and large-scale subscribers by an average of 15 percent.

The increase in electricity tariffs for small-scale subscribers had yet to be set, he said.

"To be sure, small-scale subscribers still can afford the increase," he said.

The government had originally planned to increase the electricity tariffs in January. But President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono then decided to put the plan on hold, he said.

"As a consequence, the president asked the finance minister to cover subsidy needed by state power utility PT PLN," he said.

Purwono said as of 2014 the government would only give electricity subsidy to small-scale subscribers belonging to 450 volt ampere (VA) class and 900 VA class.

The policy was put in the road map for the diversion of electricity subsidy to other sectors between 2010 and 2014, he said.

How many cows can you pack on an island?

Indra Harsaputra and Achmad Faisal , The Jakarta Post, Madura/West Nusa Tenggara | Fri, 01/22/2010 12:31 PM | Java Brew

Cultural commodity: Aside from being used for farming, strong Madurese bulls are also raced for money.

Madura bulls are not just renowned as racing animals that have become symbols of honor and prestige. They are also the foundation of the nation’s bid to cover its deficit of beef in the country.

The director general for livestock at the Agriculture Ministry, Tjeppy D. Soedjana, says cattle was once abound in Indonesia, but since the 1980s the country had begun importing beef cattle.

“At first we imported 100,000 heads of cattle. This year, the number has increased to 600,000,” he says.

“Although we continue to import, we’re still short of beef cattle, so cows that are still productive are getting slaughtered.”

He adds that the nation current consumes 2.2 million heads of cattle a year. More than a quarter are imported, while 1.6 million are sourced from within the country. The amount of beef consumed annually in Indonesia is expected to continue to rise in line with the growing population.

“This year we’re trying to cut back our beef cattle imports,” Tje-ppy says.

“To reduce imports, the government will develop livestock farms in certain areas. One of these is Madura, which has long been famous for its cattle.”

Sofyan Sudrajat, in his 2005 book Care of Livestock — Cattle, notes that in the 1980s, Sapudi Island off Madura was famous for having the highest cattle population density in the world. It was also around that time that Indonesia began importing cattle to meet its domestic demand for beef.

The island had 115 heads of cattle per square kilometer, and the animals were notoriously hardy beasts, able to live off dried-out pastures.

East Java Animal Husbandry Agency secretary Henny Muhardini says the number of cattle in Madura is now in decline. The current population is estimated at 602,000 animals, or almost a fifth of the total cattle population of East Java of 3,456,000 animals.

“The number of cattle in Madura continues to decline because the Madurese people still use the traditional system to breed them,” Henny tells The Jakarta Post.

“Some refuse to adopt artificial insemination because they say it’s forbidden by their religion.”

He adds that a third of the current Madura cattle population, or 200,000 animals, can be used as potential breeders through artificial insemination, but only 30,000 have been inseminated this way.

“We’ve approached the farmers and educated them about artificial insemination, but they find it hard to accept,” he says.

“This has made many inseminators give up. From the 200 inseminators working there, only 85 are still actively conducting social education programs.”

To increase the cattle population of Madura, Henny goes on, the East Java administration will designate the island as the province’s cattle husbandry hub. Part of its plan will be to raise farmers’ business capital by providing funding.

“Each group of cattle farmers in Madura will be eligible for Rp 300 million [US$30,000] in aid,” he says.

“We’re also rolling out low-interest loans for small and medium enterprises, particularly cattle farmers.”

With this ambitious plan in its sights, the provincial administration is targeting a cattle population of 4,665,000 by 2014, or a 6 percent growth rate each year. This is designed to drastically reduce the number of cattle being imported.

The Diamond Cow program, is also helping boost the cattle population, targeting 5 million calves to be born each year. The program is a continuation of the earlier Artificial Insemination of One Million Cattle (Insan Sejati) program, which was achieved in 2008.

Govt pools foreign aid to reconstruct W. Sumatra

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/22/2010 10:49 AM

The government launched Thursday a multilateral donor fund aiming to mobilize and manage Rp 22.9 trillion (US$2.47 billion) to help rebuild earthquake-hit West Sumatra.

The fund, designated the Indonesia Multi Donor Fund Facility for Disaster Response (IMDFF-DR), is expected to provide a solution to some of the previous problems encountered in the previously poorly coordinated channeling of donated funds after natural disasters.

“This country is prone to natural disasters so we should prepare a good management system to handle donations, not only for West Sumatra, but also for other disasters that may arise in the future.

West Sumatra was hard-hit by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake in September last year, killing at least 1,117 people.

The earthquake reportedly heavily damaged 114,797 houses, moderately damaged 67,198 houses and lightly damaged 67,838 houses.

National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Deputy Chairman Lukita Dinarsyah Tuwo said during the launching ceremony that the country had previous experience of rather disorganized and uncoordinated distribution of incoming disaster aid funds.

“We have learnt from previous disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Aceh and also the Yogyakarta earthquake when the channeling of donations has been not well-organized.” Lukita said.

The IMDFF-DR was expected to be the sole official government entity with the authority to pool and channel donated funds from foreign governments and agencies.

“We hope this can [help] eliminate the problems we encountered in the past, so that we can recover from disasters more quickly,” Lukita said.

This body is fully under government control, and managed by a steering committee to be chaired by the Bappenas deputy chairman on regions and regional autonomy.

“Among the officials involved in the body are representatives from the National Disaster Mitigation Agency [BNPB], as well as all disaster-related ministries, including the Finance Ministry,” Lukita said.

A number of international organizations have supported the new body; these include the World Bank as a trustee, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the administrative agent, as well as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Bakri Beck, the deputy for rehabilitation and reconstruction at the BNPB, meanwhile, said that West Sumatra would need an estimated Rp 22.9 trillion to fund recovery.

“As much as Rp 3.23 trillion are needed to help the economy recover in the province, both in the short-term and long-term.

“Physical reconstruction, meanwhile, would cost up to Rp 19.67 trillion,” he said.

According to Bakri, 80 percent of physical reconstruction will be needed for destroyed or damaged infrastructure (such as public facilities, roads and bridges) and housing.

“Infrastructure in the productive sector, such as trade and Small Medium Enterprises [SMEs], suffered 11 percent of the total infrastructure damage reported,” he said.

The government would be able to allocate to the required recovery program Rp 7.1 trillion from the state budget, or only 31 percent of the total funds needed to fund full recovery in West Sumatra.

Bakrie added that the West Sumatra administration and the BNPB had studied that the government would need to disburse up to Rp 3.54 trillion just for infrastructure recovery this year, in order to meet fairly urgent needs.

“In 2011, physical rehabilitation would need another Rp 2.87 trillion,” he said. (bbs)

Indonesia to Build Water Hyacinth Factory

The plan has been outlined since six months ago.

Viva News, Antique, Elly Setyo Rini, KAMIS, 14 JANUARI 2010, 17:01 WIB

(Antara/ Wahyu Putro)

VIVAnews - Indonesian entrepreneurs will shortly establish a water hyacinth processing factory in Egypt.

“It’s better for the government of Egypt to spend their money on developing a processing industry than cleaning off water hyacinth on the River Nil,” the Association of Indonesian Furniture and Handicraft Producers (Asmindo) Ambar Tjahjono said after meeting the Egypt delegations at the office of Industry Department on Thursday, January 14.

Tjahjono said the plan has been outlined since six months ago and is facilitated by the State Minister for Coop and Small and Medium Enterprises.

“Asmindo and Baraka Group from Egypt are currently working on the business agreement. Hopefully it will be done in two months,” he said.

Indonesian furniture entrepreneurs will be teaming up with Baraka Group to develop the water hyacinth processing factory in Egypt. The investment is predicted to be worth Rp 10 billion which will be split evenly by both institutions.

There have been 50 to 100 tons of water hyacinth ready to be made into furniture and handicrafts like bags, floor mats and steel. The factory will hire 400 workers which also include Indonesian labors.

However, the collaboration is still challenged by the absence of Intellectual Property Rights Recognition on designs from Indonesia. “I’ve met the President Director of Baraka Group (Mohamed Barakan) and he promised to solve this problem in two weeks,” Tjahjono said.

He also said that the water hyacinth processing will slowly be turned into home industry due to Egypt’s reputation as world tourism site.

Products made out of the plant will be marketed domestically in Egypt and exported to neighboring countries.

Translated by: Nataya Ermanti

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Solo SMEs to participate in Singapore Chingay Parade

Antara News, Thursday, January 14, 2010 15:57 WIB

Solo, C Java (ANTARA News) - Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Central Java`s city of Solo have prepared various handicraft goods to participate in the Chingay parade in Singapore which will take place on February 19-22, 2010.

The handicraft products, mostly Batik cloth, are expected to enliven the international event, head of the cooperatives and UKM Solo office, Febria Roekmie (Evy) said here on Thursday.

"The handicraft goods include batik masks, batik bracelets, and batik cloth are aimed to support the contingent from Solo," Roekmie said.

A total of 50 countries will take part in the annual Chingay parade, she said, adding that batik is not only used for making dresses.

Meanwhile, head of Culture and Tourism Solo office, Purnomo Subagyo said Indonesia in the event is given a quota for 150 participants while other countries such as Malaysia, China and Japan only 20 participants each at the most.

Rp 46.7b in loans for Jakarta residents

Indah Setiawati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 01/13/2010 7:55 PM

The Jakarta Cooperatives, SME and Trade Agency will extend Rp 46.7 billion in loans to 9,300 beneficiaries in 88 subdistricts across the city under the community economic empowerment scheme, an official said Wednesday.

The loans vary from Rp 300 million to Rp 540 million per subdistrict, said agency head Ade Suharsono.

“We’ll disburse the funds to all subdistricts this year. The amount will vary depending on their needs.”

He added the loans would be prioritized for those seeking to start new businesses.

Govt relaxes rules on micro credit

Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/12/2010 9:02 PM

The government has relaxed some rules on its micro credit support program (the KUR) including cutting lending rates and extending loan restructuring periods to support micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs).

This year government will provide a loan guarantee facility of Rp 2 trillion (US$218 million), to support up to Rp 20 trillion of KUR, Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said Tuesday at the signing of an MoU with the banks.

The lending rate on micro credit (below Rp 5 million) was cut from 24 to 22 percent; that for retail credit (between Rp 5 and Rp 500 million) was cut from 16 to 14 percent.

Debtors holding working capital loans can now request a loan extension from three to six years; those with investment loans can now request extension from five to 10 years.

Debtors can now also borrow consumer loans. Credit referencing with the Bank Indonesia (BI)debtor information system (SID) no longer applies to micro credit loans.

“We can also raise credit ceilings for linkage (on-lending) institutions with loan recovery strategies to Rp 1 billion,” said Hatta.m

This relaxation of the rules should help MSMEs, which contribute 55.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), he said.

Improvement of Micro-credits Channeling

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 29 December, 2009 | 15:37 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Medan:The central bank, Bank Indonesia (BI), has predicted that credit channeling for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in North Sumatra this year could reach above 50 percent following improvements in this area’s economic development.

Up until October, micro credit channeling reached 49 percent of bank total credits of Rp68.29 trillion.

“We are optimistic because micro business potential here is quite large,” said BI Medan branch Head Gatot Sugiono.

According to Gatot, up until last October, micro-credit channeling amounted to Rp3.41 trillion, an increase compared to September, which amounted to Rp33.07 trillion.

The credit development is deemed positive because it occurs in the midst of credit channeling general decreases all October.

To increase micro-credits channeling, BI will try to push the banking industry to increase their credit portion for SMEs.

Moreover, this sector has proved to be more resistant to the financial crisis that occurred since the end of last year. “The potential for micro businesses in North Sumatra is still quite good,” he said.

ANT | FAMEGA

Rp46 billion in Financial Aid for Small Entrepreneurs Disbursed

Tempo Interactive, Monday, 28 December, 2009 | 17:23 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Jakarta Government disbursed Rp46.7 billion in financial aid for micro-scale businesses. “The program is expected to be an economic foundation for Jakarta,” said Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo yesterday.

Fauzi explained that the funds came from the local government, not from donations. The people are asked to follow the regulation agreed to.”The funds will not bring any added value if not properly and honestly managed, “he said.

For now, Fauzi said, only 88 cooperatives could channel the funds. The number of cooperatives will be added step by step until it reaches 267 cooperatives starting next year. “So that every district has a source to manage micro funds,” he said.

Fauzi explained that district level channeling was chosen because cooperative members understand more the condition of their residents. “We will also provide training to cooperative administrators. They will be accompanied by experts,” he said.

Head of Cooperatives, Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses Ade Soeharsono added that the persons eligible for the funds are those in non-formal sectors who don’t have business permits.” Like meat ball sellers, small store owners, barbers and other micro business owners,” he said.

They can ask for loans after joining cooperatives in their district. Every application will then be selected by cooperatives administrators based on feasibility analysis.“The loan limit is Rp5 million,” said Ade.

The fund must be returned to the government in form of dividends in two year time.

RIKY FERDIANTO

Starting a Business in Indonesia? Yogya’s the Place to Be

The Jakarta Globe, Irvan Tisnabudi

Yogyakarta is the easiest city in Indonesia to start a business in, way ahead of Jakarta, which ranked just seventh of 14 Indonesian cities in a new survey.

The study, released on Tuesday by the International Finance Corporation, also revealed that Manado and Makassar would hold their own globally as business-friendly destinations.

“This survey indicates that certain cities have been efficient in helping businesses grow,” said Adam Sack, Indonesia country manager for the IFC, which is part of the World Bank.

The survey measured how long it takes to obtain a construction permit or register a business in various Indonesian cities and compared regulations with 182 other economies worldwide.

Yogyakarta only requires eight procedures to get a building permit, putting the city fifth in the world in that category. Jakarta, on the other hand, is more cumbersome, requiring 14 procedures.

It takes 43 days to get a business permit in Yogyakarta, at a cost of $2,271 — or about 29 percent of the national per capita annual income. The equivalent permit in Jakarta takes 64 days on average but costs less.

In Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, it takes only 56 days for businesses to get a construction permit, ranking it ninth globally in that category. In Manado, it takes 12 days for a business to formally register its property, ranking it 24th globally.

In September, Indonesia was ranked 122nd out of 183 countries in an IFC survey on the ease of doing business. Singapore topped the list, Thailand was 12th and Malaysia 23rd.

They city survey was conducted jointly by the IFC and Regional Autonomy Watch, and endorsed by the State Ministry for Administrative Reform.

Sandiaga Uno, chairman of small- and medium-sized enterprises at the Indonesian chamber of commerce, said other factors should be considered in ranking cities. “Even though several cities do well in global rankings on the ease of starting a business and gaining permits, if there was a global list covering ease of acquiring land for businesses, Indonesia would rank very poorly,” he said.

Villages go cyber to promote products, improve market access

Sri Wahyuni , The Jakarta Post, Bantul | Mon, 12/07/2009 12:34 PM

A number of villages in Wukirsari sub-district, Imogiri district, Bantul regency, Yogyakarta, have shown initiative in making their business potential accessible on the Internet through a website that they collectively set up and manage.

Five villages in the sub-district have created hot spots where people can freely access the local Internet connection to download or upload.

"This is part of our way of promoting our potential and attracting more tourists and buyers to come to our villages," head of Wukirsari sub-district Bayu Bintoro told The Jakarta Post recently.

The five hot spot areas are the sub-district's newly built Gazebo hall, the administration hall, at Singosaren village, at Manggung village and the Wukirsari Tourism Information Center (TIC).

Bayu said the idea came from the sub-district's young businessmen under the Wukirsari's youth grouping Karang Taruna, who collectively or individually run businesses as producers of various commodities.

They assembled the hardware to set up the hot spots themselves. "It saved budgets," Bayu said.

Wukirsari, has a youth entrepreneurship pilot project , according to Bayu, comprising 95 business units run by young people. These include batik making, snack production, fisheries and animal husbandry.

The sub-district, he added, had at least three production centers for batik, leather crafts and plaited bamboo products. It also offers scenic village landscapes, making it an attractive place for tourists.

Being a tourist village, Wukirsari offers tour packages which includes a batik-making course and a taste of the sub-district's culinary traditions including wedang uwuh (herbal drink), pecel kembang turi (vegetables served with peanut sauce), abon jambu mete (a dish of fried cashew) and gudheg manggar (a dish made from young coconut palm flowers).

"Although no business orders so far has been made through the Internet, more buyers and tourists have come to the sub-district recently thanks to the information they read on our website," said Bayu, adding that the website was www.wukirsari.com.

Bayu also said that to help improve the quality of the products that his sub-district produced as well as to educate and train the producers to manage their businesses better, his administration had been cooperating with third parties.

The latest example of such cooperation was with the Jogja Heritage Society (JHS) with support from the Australia Indonesia Partnership's Yogyakarta-Central Java community assistance program.

Through an eight-month supervision program for batik makers in the sub-district, which ended last week, JHS provided training and workshops aimed at improving the creativity, professionalism and marketing networking of batik producers.

"Through the program we expect the batik makers, most of whom worked before as artisan out-workers for city-based middle-men, can now help themselves to build up businesses of their own and come up with competitive, quality products," JHS' executive director Titi Handayani said.

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Govt pitches in support for micro financing, sets aside guarantee funds

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 10/30/2009 9:40 AM

Aiming to accelerate the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the government will allocate Rp 2 trillion (US$202 million) each year over the next five years as a guarantee for them to secure bank loans.

Access to financing has been one of the major obstacles for the industry to grow, and this is what this fund — which could guarantee lending of up to Rp 20 trillion a year — is expected to change, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Thursday.

“Every year, there will be Rp 20 trillion in funding [for MSMEs], with Rp 2 trillion to be set aside from the state budget as a guarantee,” he said at the opening of the 2009 National Economic Summit.

“In five years, there will be Rp 100 trillion in funding in a scheme to help provide micro and small enterprises with working capital.”

Yudhoyono, however, also underlined that prospective borrowers should be creative and have a sense of entrepreneurship, calling for a reform in the national educational system to help students develop their entrepreneurial skills.

In the future, he said, students who had undergone 12 years of schooling were expected to become not so much “job seekers” as “job creators”.

He lamented the low number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia, less than 1 percent of total population, compared to the United States and Singapore with 15 percent and 7 percent.

MSMEs are one of six economic topics being discussed at the two-day summit being held at the Ritz-Carlton Pacific Place.

The summit is being jointly hosted by the government and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) to hear suggestions from all stakeholders in the economy to help shape the country’s next five-year economic plan.

Sandiago Uno, Kadin’s deputy chairman for micro, small and medium enterprises and cooperatives, said the chamber expected the government to establish a micro financing institution to make it easier for micro borrowers to access loans.

So far, micro borrowers have received Rp 14 trillion under the government’s micro loan program (KUR) this year, out of a total Rp 20 trillion earmarked in the 2009 state budget, Sandiago said.

The government disbursed Rp 12.5 trillion in KUR loans last year, out of Rp 14 trillion allocated in the 2008 state budget.

KUR loans are channeled through BNI, Bank Mandiri, BRI, BPD, Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank Bukopin.

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