Photo caption: Telkom Senior General Manager Community Development Center Hery Susanto (far right) accompanied by Telkom MSEs Empowerment Senior Manager Romles Simanjuntak (far left) and Telkom Lampung Regional General Manager Susila Shane Bona Paska (second from left) visited the business site of an MSE that Telkom fosters as partners, the JR Coffee coffee house in Lampung some time ago.

Jakarta, 26 February 2022 – PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) is committed to continuously accelerate the digital economy through digitization in various sectors and levels of society. Developing micro and small enterprises (MSE) is one of the economic potentials that Telkom supports to improve local businesses' welfare. The commitment to developing MSE is evident from the number of MSE partners across Indonesia from various business fields that Telkom fosters. 

One of the MSEs is a coffee house in Lampung, JR Coffee, which has been successful in developing its business and helping to empower local communities. Initially named Kopi Bubuk Bintang Gajah established in 2002, JR Coffee runs a business with eight workers recruited from areas in its vicinity. It does its entire production process manually from roasting to packaging. With a total production of 500 kg per month, the manual manufacturing process takes a long time. This was certainly a challenge for JR Coffee to develop and expand its business. 

JR Coffee got its big break when in 2007 it became a partner that Telkom fosters and it received support for business capital loans. They spent the capital to purchase machines that increase production effectiveness by up to one ton per month in order to meet the market demand, as well as expand marketing reach. JR Coffee has also succeeded in marketing its products beyond the island of Sumatra by participating in various SME exhibitions and the business has always been successfully sold out on each occasion. 

Handicraft producer UD Mitra Elang Abadi has  the same success story. The company's cotton packaging and trading business was established in 2011, and it came on board as one of the partners that Telkom fosters to develop its business sector from cotton packaging and trading, to producing football and money deposit containers with the support of a business capital loan from Telkom. By empowering 15 workers from its immediate surroundings, UD Mitra Elang Abadi has succeeded in producing 10,000 balls per month. It has also been successful in its marketing with expansion in Jambi and Palembang.

"It is necessary to innovate and refresh the MSEs business pattern in developing their business, especially during the pandemic when the consumption pattern of people's goods and services has shifted from offline to online. MSEs are definitely affected and find it difficult to run a business when the economy is disrupted. Therefore, the MSEs owners must innovate to adapt to changes in the existing conditions in order to survive and even develop, of course by optimizing technology and digitization. This is where Telkom plays a role in supporting local economic actors,” Telkom Senior General Manager Community Development Center Hery Susanto said when in January he paid a visit to the two partners that Telkom fosters.

Hery said that digitization is a necessity and due to digitalization, it is even more evident during the large-scale social restrictions, when the MSEs could contribute to an increase in the use of e-learning, e-commerce, digital literacy, delivery requests, and the need for medical/cleaning equipment. However, it is undeniable that there are still many digitalization problems that MSEs experienced, especially those in remote areas, where limited internet access remains an obstacle and MSEs still have insufficient understanding of technology, limited online marketing, production processes and online market access. 

Telkom as a telecommunications company remains consistent to accelerate distribution of connectivity so that all people can benefit from internet access for their daily needs, including to run a business and it can increase the digitization of society and accelerate Indonesia's digital economy. "Telkom's contribution is an effort to make digital technology beneficial for everyone, in line with our spirit of #DigitalForAll to make Indonesia a better place," Hery said.

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