Photo caption: Telkom Enterprise & Business Service Director Edi Witjara (third from right), EVP of the Telkom Business Service Division Pontjo Suharwono (second from right) and GM of Makassar Regional Nuryadin Salam (far right) at the NGOBRAS session with MSMEs, which featured Abdul Salam, the chief executive officer of RUNUT or Rumah Nutrisi (third from left), Arie Rich, a Makassar ethnic clothing designer (second from left), and Sukma, an entrepreneur of instant spices for Makassar cuisine (far left) as speakers.

Photo caption: Telkom Enterprise & Business Service Director Edi Witjara (center) EVP of the Telkom Business Service Division Pontjo Suharwono (fifth from right) and GM of Makassar Regional Nuryadin Salam (fourth from right) posed for a photo with speakers featured in NGOBRAS with MSMEs informal chat session held during MSME Makassar Mini EXPO.

Makassar, 2 June 2022 - As an effort to continuously boosting local economic activities, PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) held a Mini EXPO at the Rinra Hotel Makassar last week for  micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that Telkom fosters in Makassar. The expo is a collaboration of Telkom Regional 7 Makassar, Telkom Community Development Center unit and PT. FINNET Indonesia and it featured a casual chat with MSMEs session or NGOBRAS, entitled "Advancing Eastern Indonesia through Empowering MSMEs". Telkom Enterprise & Business Service Director Edi Witjara was in attendance at the event, which was a manifestation of the company 's commitment in supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises especially in eastern Indonesia.

NGOBRAS featured Abdul Salam, the chief executive officer of RUNUT or Rumah Nutrisi (Nutrition House) and manager of Makassar Entrepreneur Community as a keynote speaker. Other speakers included Arie Rich, a Makassar ethnic clothing designer who has exported his products abroad and Sukma, an entrepreneur of instant spices for Makassar cuisine such as coto makassar, pallu marra, saudara soup, konro soup and other Makassar culinary specialties that are in high demand by buyers from other regions in the archipelago as well as buyers from neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. As the name implies, the NGOBRAS session was held in a relaxed manner.

Telkom Enterprise & Business Service Director Edi Witjara in his remarks expressed his support for MSMEs empowerment in eastern Indonesia. “The development of a digital ecosystem in eastern Indonesia, of course, is inseparable from the role of digital infrastructure and technology. The use of digital infrastructure & technology is the main key in creating a digital ecosystem in various aspects, especially the digital economy. MSMEs are one of the national economic drivers that impact Indonesia's digital economy growth, especially during the pandemic in the past two years. MSMEs are part of an independent Indonesian economy with a great potential to improve people's welfare and MSMEs have a significant role in the country's economic growth."

The eastern region of Indonesia is famous for its rich natural resources, namely agricultural, fisheries, forestry, mining to tourism sectors with untapped potential. Most of MSMEs in eastern Indonesia are in retail, trade and food and beverage manufacturing sectors. In addition, the eastern Indonesia Region is rich with various local cultures and diverse, interesting works of art. These potentials could impact positively to the local economy if they are well managed and properly empowered, especially by benefiting from TelkomGroup's digital solutions that would advance Indonesia's digital economy in the future.

Rakhmad Tunggal Afiffudin, CEO of PT. Finnet Indonesia was also present to support MSMEs in this Makassar MSME Mini EXPO. Finnet facilitates MSMEs with Mitra Finpay application version 2.0, which was launched in Makassar by Telkom Enterprise & Business Service Director. The new version has more powerful features since it can also function as a POS (Point of Sales) and can generate QRIS automatically only by optimizing MSME owners' smartphones as merchants. It is downloadable for free from playstore (Android) and app store (Apple), and this enables quicker transactions and the incoming fund is transferred directly to the merchants' bank accounts via QRIS technology. In addition, Finnet management also provides 3 million rupiah Top Up Balance for working capital assistance through the Finpay Partner application as a manifestation of its concern for Makassar MSMEs affected by the pandemic these past two years.

On the same occasion, Agus Yudha, EVP of Telkom Regional 7 also said "Telkom's contribution is an effort to make digital technology useful for everyone, in line with the spirit of #DigitalForAll to make Indonesia a better place". The use of digital technology is also one way to increase efficiency for its users .

As a leader in the telecommunications industry, Telkom will continue to remain consistent in accelerating the distribution of digital infrastructure in Indonesia, so that all people benefit from it for their daily needs, including to run their business. It is also expected that by empowering MSMEs, they could later establish a digital ecosystem and accelerate the growth of Indonesia's digital economy.

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