Indonesia: Domestic SMEs Affected by Weakened Rupiah Exchange Rate

• Sep 27, 2018

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are reportedly affected by the weakened rupiah to US dollar exchange rate.

According to Gati Wibiwaningsih, Industry Ministry’s director general of SMEs said that SMEs with an export market are not as affected as others that are limited to the domestic market, which presents several problems.

“Some of their raw materials are imported, there is definitely an affect if the market is exclusively the domestic market,” said Gati at Jakarta on Wednesday, September 26, who gave an example of the textile and furniture that still need to import several materials.

In order to further facilitate these SMEs that are affected by the weakened rupiah exchange rate, the Industry Ministry is set to facilitate them by marketing their products to a global market. The ministry’s initial step to do so is by inviting eight SMEs that fit the quality requirement to participate in the Ambiente consumer goods trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

Gati argued that SMEs’ handicraft products such as wooden, copper, textile, and glass handcrafts are greatly demanded in the reemerging global market. The export market of handcraft productsthroughout 2017 generated USD 251 million.

BISNIS

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2018/09/27/056922016/Domestic-SMEs-Affected-by-Weakened-Rupiah-Exchange-Rate