The Ministry of Trade Cooperates with Alibaba and Google to Bring SMEs to Go International

The government through the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) looks more serious in inviting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be able to compete in the digital era as it is today. One of the latest breakthroughs made by the Ministry of Trade is to establish cooperation with global players, in this case with Google and Alibaba.

The two international players are considered to have a strategic impact on the development of SMEs in the digital realm. Cooperation with Google will be optimized to help Indonesian products reach a wider international market with Google's marketing platform. It is planned that Google Adwords will be used to boost the pace of SMEs to grow their profitability and global market share.

Meanwhile, from Alibaba's perspective, the government wants to initiate the marketing process of food and beverage products, both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C). Alibaba's success in the e-commerce realm is considered capable of providing the best insights and solutions for the local industry.

The cooperation process is currently in the negotiation stage regarding prices and market share targets, said the Inspector General of National Export Development at the Ministry of Trade, Nus Nuzulia Ishak. When this collaboration is running, later on, various local products will be supported by Google to be displayed through its advertising channels according to the target market in various countries.

The benefit of the partnership with Alibaba is the issuance of trade certifications that guarantee food safety from Indonesia to enter the international arena. In addition, it can relax more in terms of taxation and product import duties. It is targeted that for the initial phase later, after the preparation for the cooperation is complete, there will be 10 entrepreneurs from Indonesia who pass Alibaba's certification.

In general, the government targets to achieve sales of $10 million this year and $50 million next year from cooperation with Alibaba. The government believes that digitizing business processes is the right step to target international market share and promote local products.

For this reason, SMEs who will later join this program will be presented with an easy mechanism, by registering online to get access and legality and related parties. Product selection and product guarantee validation will also be rolled out in the SME registration process.