REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Ministry of Cooperative, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises encouraged Indonesian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to use online services to market their products. Cooperation with online transportation firm Grab Indonesia has been initiated to support SMEs.

The ministry has discussed the issue with Grab Indonesia to encourage more SMEs to "go online" and use the online platform to market their products, I Wayan Dipta, the ministry's deputy for production and marketing, stated here on Friday.

"We have met with Grab leaders to discuss this. Grab has various programs despite its basic business being transportation, including partnership with Indonesian SMEs in the food and beverage sector as well as retailers," he noted.

Currently, some two million SMEs in the country have partnered with Grab, and the number is targeted to reach eight million by 2019.

Dipta remarked that the ministry, along with Grab, will conduct road shows to familiarize the use of online platform to market their products.

"For retailers, for instance, Grab has promised to promote SMEs products online, including e-payment, to facilitate both producers and consumers," Dipta pointed out.

The SMEs will have the opportunity to work with the Online Trading Kiosk, a technology firm that has created a platform for Indonesians to sell products of well-known businessmen. "This will also allow people to start payment and online ticketing services. We will work on it together," he emphasized.

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The ministry will also recommend SMEs under its mentoring in regions feasible for partnership with Grab.

"We believe that in future, more SMEs in Indonesia would go online. Moreover, Grab has set a target to forge partnership with 100 million SMEs in the ASEAN by 2025," he added.

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