LiputanIslam.com— The Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Rosan perkara Roeslani said the current condition of micro, small and medium enterprises (UMKM) was in crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rosan mentioned that out of the total of 60 million businesses in this sector, nearly 50 percent had to close because they experienced difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic. It means that nearly 30 million UMKM entrepreneurs have closed their businesses.
“Nearly 50 percent, around 48.6 percent from the total of UMKM in Indonesia shut their businesses immediately. It is based on the survey done by Asian Development Bank (ADB),” he said on Tuesday (28/7).
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Moreover, 30.5 percent of the total UMKM experienced a domestic decline, 19.8 percent experienced production or supply chain disruption, and 14.1 percent experienced contract cancellation, and 37.7 percent of business operators decreased their revenues.
He compared the current condition with the crisis in 1998. According to him, UMKM at the time became the main pawn that moved the economic wheel to get out of the crisis. Meanwhile, nowadays, UMKM is the most affected sector.
“In 1998, UMKM became our spearhead to get out of the crisis. This year, our UMKM got affected first even though the employment is almost 96 percent. So, the impact is huge,” he remarked.
He asked the government to move quickly to save UMKM because it has, so far, greatly influenced the condition of Indonesia’s economy.
“Therefore, the implementation of government policies must be very fast,” he said. (sh/kompas/cnbcindonesia)