There is no shortage of MSME development programs in Indonesia, especially in the capital city of Jakarta. These often take the form of business incubators, structured programs that provide early-stage enterprises with the support and services they need but find it difficult to access, such as networking opportunities and exposure to financing1. Other MSME development programs are business training run by corporations, financial institutions or the government, each set up with their own goals and objectives, while others offer resources and support exclusively for MSMEs in specific sectors. However, without diagnostic data on their effectiveness on supporting MSMEs, their impact risks being suboptimal.
There are several policies concerning MSME development programs
given the myriad of programs that are currently available2. Before the issuance of the Government Regulation No. 7 of 2021 on
the Ease, Protection and Empowerment of MSMEs (GR 7/2021), business
incubators were regulated by the the Presidential Regulation No. 27
of 2013 on the Development of Entrepreneurship Incubator and its
implementing regulation, the Ministry of Cooperatives and MSMEs
Regulation No. 24 of 2015 on the Norms, Standards, Procedures and
Criteria of Entrepreneurship Incubator Development. While the newly
issued GR 7/2021 had introduced changes to the implementation of
business incubators - such as the process of curating and ranking of
incubators - not all of the changes pertaining to incubator
development are included in the recently issued ministerial
regulation3 4.
In the private sector, business training run by civil
society organizations and large enterprises tend to be untracked and
short-lived. They often do not use standardized curriculums and are
often set up to meet the organizations’ own organizational goals. GR
7/2021 now mandates these organizations to inform and convey their
plans, implementation, and outcomes to the Minister for Cooperatives
and MSMEs5. Such a requirement is important because it can help the
government to estimate each program’s impact on the growth and
performance of MSMEs in a systematic way.
At the
regional level, the Governor of DKI Jakarta Regulation No. 2 of 2020
on Integrated Entrepreneurship Development, which facilitates the
flagship region-wide Jakpreneur program in DKI Jakarta, includes
provisions on program monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring and
evaluation are necessary to identify whether the program is
successful in meeting their objectives, but at this time, there are
little known indicators used to measure program success beyond the
number of sign-ups.
MSME development programs must set success metrics, not only to
understand how well they are performing, but also to identify
whether there are gaps between the program they are delivering and
the needs of MSMEs. First, categorizing the variations in MSME
development program designs can allow policymakers to design key
performance indicators (KPIs) that account for their differences.
Second, developing metrics and milestones to identify success beyond
sign-up numbers for business incubators and Jakpreneur will improve
the value that the programs bring to its participants. Lastly, to
ensure that the success measurement data on these programs can be
easily accessed by relevant stakeholders, a digital platform can be
set up to allow data input, and a dedicated team assigned to process
the data.
In addition to the revision of existing
regulations, the Ministry of Cooperatives and MSMEs may consider
creating a separate operational regulation to encourage the business
world and civil society organizations across the country to measure
the impact of the myriad of business training they are currently
running for MSMEs across the country. Such regulation should
understand the priorities of the stakeholders involved and avoid
becoming a red tape that disincentivizes them from running the
programs.
For many entrepreneurs, the decision to turn into innovations depends on the ease to adopt technology, trained workforces, and multiple sources of finance. Yet, navigating the complex regulation is a major challenge for most lay business people. To expedite the economic recovery post-pandemic recession, the stakeholders in the ecosystem are urged to formulate the right policy to simplify such challenges.