DSResearch Report: SME Empowerment Collaboration 2020

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are an important component of the economy in many countries, including Indonesia. According to data from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, as of 2018 there were more than 64 million SMEs spread across various regions in Indonesia. They managed to absorb 95% of the total national workforce.

Looking at the impact given, it is clear that SMEs have a crucial role, so it is worth keeping their penetration. However, in reality, many businesses on this scale are still vulnerable, due to many factors. For example, from the internal side, business operations are not yet agile, making it difficult to expand. Then external factors, for example related to technological disruption.

Several initiatives were then rolled out by various parties, by presenting innovations to solve specific problems of SMEs, especially using a technology-based approach. In order to see the extent of these empowerment efforts, DSResearch collaborated with Mandiri Capital Indonesia to conduct a research entitled "Small-Medium Enterprise Empowerment".

The discussions summarized in the report include:

1. Global SME Landscape; discusses the growth trends of SMEs in the world, including innovation and technology adoption to optimize the pace of business.
2. SME Landscape in Indonesia; discusses the development of SMEs in Indonesia, about popular sectors, distribution & business classification, to technology adoption so far.
3. Challenges of SMEs in Indonesia; discusses various common challenges faced by SMEs in Indonesia, some of which are related to financial, operational and expansion issues.
4. Strategic Solutions for SMEs; explore the solutions that have been presented for SMEs in Indonesia, by mapping startups, digital products, and services that have begun to be applied.

Case studies are also included in the report, to provide a direct perspective from SMEs.

For a full discussion, please download the report via the following link: “SME Empowerment Report".

- Disclosure: In preparing this white paper, DSResearch partnered with Mandiri Capital Indonesia (MCI) which is a corporate venture capital owned by Bank Mandiri. MCI actively invests in digital startups in the fintech sector and developer of solutions for SMEs in Indonesia.