Should the Government and Alibaba Group Launch Inamall E-Commerce?

The Ministry of Trade in collaboration with Alibaba Group has officially launched a portal for buying and selling Indonesian products in China called Inamall, last Friday (08/07). This collaboration was carried out by the Ministry of Trade to provide opportunities for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to sell their superior products to the Chinese market.

Later Inamall which is the platform Business-to-Consumer (B2C) of Tmall Global, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, sells all products that have not yet entered the Chinese retail market, which are the hallmarks of Indonesian-made products.

"This platform gives Indonesian entrepreneurs access to be able to sell their products directly to consumers in China, without going through importers or distributors," said Trade Minister Thomas Trikasih Lembong in a press release on situs official of the Ministry of Trade.

Since its launch in soft launch last year, the Inamall site has now been accessed by more than 400 million netizens in China, as reported by Cash. In particular, Inamall sells a variety of superior products that make it easier for Chinese entrepreneurs to get Indonesian products only through the Inamall portal.

Should this partnership be launched by the government?

The government's full support provided through the Ministry of Trade on the one hand may be commendable, at least it has opened up new opportunities for local MSME players to sell their products to the Chinese market which is said to have a large number of consumers.

However, the question is, is it necessary for the government, which in this case is represented by the Ministry of Trade, to directly cooperate with the Alibaba Group, which incidentally is the E-commerce foreign direct competitors E-commerce and marketplace local.

It would be wonderful if the government actually gave more support and opportunities to E-commerce and marketplace local and then can enter the global market selling Indonesian products with the flag E-commerce and marketplace local.

There is pride of course if E-commerce and marketplace Local companies such as Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Kaskus and Mataharimall have become platform providers who are responsible for selling Indonesian-made products to China, rather than using the Alibaba Group flag to reach China's strategic market, and it is possible that their platforms will also be presented seamlessly to Indonesia, eroding the platform. local. At least Lazada is now in Alibaba's control.

In this case, ideally the government is not toourgent' to intervene to create the partnership, which seems redundant and unnecessary. The thing to worry about is what if in the end it is the local MSME actors who have been merchant loyal to E-commerce and marketplace local people turn to Inamall because of the temptation to expand their business overseas? This is something that must be considered not only by the government but also other related parties.