Jakarta, July 30th 2020—Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs of Republic of Indonesia and ASEAN Economic Council (AEC) Indonesia held a focus group discussion (FGD) called ‘The Utilization of EAC E-Monitoring System Efforts (STORMEA) in Supporting the Improvement of National Economy’. In this FGD, the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs of Indonesia invited the Head of ASEAN Studies Center (ASC), Fisipol UGM, Dafri Agussalim as one of the speakers. Assistant Deputy for Regional and Subregional Economic Cooperation, Netty Muharni, became the moderator and the speaker of Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs of Indonesia in this event which was joined by 55 audience.
Netty opened the FGD, which was held on Zoom, with three main topics. First, a short explanation about ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Second, an explanation regarding the implementation of AEC in Indonesia. Third, explanation regarding STORMEA. Netty said, the Ministry of Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs as the head of AEC Council, had a responsibility to supervise the implementation of AEC in Indonesia by referring to various stages which had been agreed upon to support the Blueprint of EAC in 2025. “The Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs is given the mandate to monitor the fulfillment of commitments, implementation and utilization of ASEAN cooperation, and coordinate with ministries or sector development institutions,” Netty said.
“STORMEA became one crucial thing to do and must always be improved to guarantee the better implementation of AEC in the future,” Netty said. She said that STORMEA was a web-based monitoring system for annual priority achievement reports. The results of STORMEA monitoring would be the report of the Minister of the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs as AEC Indonesia to the President. Other than that, STORMEA functioned to simplify business processes, integrate all AEC implementation data in Indonesia, and provide information on the benefits of EAC for Indonesia.
FGD was continued by the Head of ASC UGM that explained about the role of ASC in developing and enhancing the competitiveness of MSMEs in Indonesia. According to him, MSMEs must be pushed to get the benefits of all possibilities and become the main actors in AEC. MSME, Dafri added, was a prominent sector in the Asia region which has been proven to support the economy, especially in the developing countries. “Unfortunately, the state often ignored the initiatives of this self-reliant economy,” Dafri said.
Dafri said that, according to the data from Statistics Indonesia, MSMEs were proven to be ‘resilient’ against crises. Because of that, the government must pay attention to MSMEs, which its number is growing every year in Indonesia. Indonesia’s MSMEs, Dafri said, provided employment and provided primary and secondary income for the middle to lower income population. Dafri said that there were just 8% or approximately 3.79 millions of MSMEs which used online platforms. “Where in fact, digital marketing for products are important for MSMEs,” Dafri explained.
In dealing with AEC, Dafri explained several strategies and recommendations for MSMEs development in Indonesia. First, in increasing global competitiveness it could be started by mapping the potential export of superior commodities, improving the quality of human resources, to the improvement of infrastructures and energy. Second, funding access and legality, one of them was tax relief for MSMEs. Third, improve the institutional functions and strategies, either it was from government to government, regional institutions, and related organizations. Fourth, designing and increasing promotion by utilizing the digital marketplace. Fifth, monitoring or supervision regarding import and export regulations and also compliance of MSMEs actors with AEC regulations and quality standards. “Women empowerment issue and the urgency of implementing e-commerce also must be concerned to develop MSMEs,” Dafri said.
“Through in-depth studies of the problems faced and the advantages possessed by MSMEs, ASC can support the government to develop MSMEs,” Dafri explained. According to Dafri, it needed a more institutionalized cooperation between ASC in all universities in Indonesia with the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs. Dafri added that the efforts aimed to produce critical scientific research and improve Indonesia’s position and contribution in ASEAN, as the objectives of ASC UGM. Through the tagline, ‘Bringing ASEAN close to you’, ASC UGM tried to develop institutional capacity to achieve the ASEAN regionalization process.
One of the FGD audience, Fadhil Haidar Sulaeman from ASC UGM, asked about the plan of the National Economic Recovery Task Force. Netty answered that this task force was a combination of several committees, one of them was the AEC Implementation Preparatory Committee. Netty added that STORMEA supported the implementation of one of the tasks of the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs. “This STORMEA was a good initiative and got a potential to be advanced with artificial intelligence technology and machine learning, so it could show the real time and continuity of the data,” Muhammad Diaz Kurniawan commented, he was one of the FGD audience from ASC UGM.