Women Empowerment, Entrepreneurship Are Gov't's Priority: Minister

Indonesia’s Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection said empowering women entrepreneurs in Indonesia is one of this cabinet’s focuses as the government continues to formulate various funding schemes for small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs).

Minister Bintang Puspayoga said the government is giving full attention to women-led SMEs, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where there are more challenges for business to survive.

“The government is paying attention to SMEs amid pandemic – not only to survive, but also to further develop and become stronger,” Puspayoga said virtually during a Women 20 (W20) event on Tuesday, March 8, as reported by Antara.

According to her, as mandated by President Joko Widodo, the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (MOWECP) is committed to help developing SMEs initiated by Indonesia’s female entrepreneurs.

And in doing so, she said the government continues the work to offer a number of funding schemes to help SMEs thrive because funding has been one of the biggest challenges for small business in Indonesia.

Furthermore, Puspayoga also encouraged business owners in Indonesia to go digital because it can significantly help businesses to flourish during the pandemic.

“Together, we have to support SMEs and gender equality because only through that social welfare can be achieved,” she concluded.

The W20 event is held in Kota Batu, East Java, on March 8-10 under the theme “Recover Together, Equally”. W20 was established to promote women participation, especially in improving global economy.