The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs recorded that the contribution of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to non-oil and gas exports was only around 15.7 percent. This figure is lower than the contribution of MSMEs in China, India and Vietnam. Therefore, the Ministry of Cooperatives held a Partnership-Based Human Resource Development (HR) with aggregators and export SMEs in Tangerang, Banten, to create an SME Go Export ecosystem. "This effort is carried out in order to support the achievement of the target for the contribution of MSMEs to non-oil and gas exports of 17 percent by 2024," said the Deputy Assistant for Human Resources Development for Small and Medium Enterprises, Deputy for SMEs at the Ministry of Cooperatives, Dwi Andriani Sulistyowati, in an official statement in Jakarta, Sunday, September 18, 2022.

According to him, Go Export SMEs need knowledge of export product market trends, market intelligence, and export product development.

SMEs are considered to still have weaknesses, one of which is not seeing trends when producing an item. On this basis, it is necessary to bring in experts in the field of product design, aggregators, and buying representatives.

In these activities, the experts transfer knowledge by providing direct reviews and input on each product produced and presented by each SME.

In this way, the development of partnership-based SME human resources between aggregators and export SMEs not only provides supporting theory, but also provides direct practice.

"There are stages, the theory is around 30-40 percent. Then we invite them to a hands-on workshop where SMEs observe, imitate, and modify the so-called ATM (Observe, Imitate, Modify), plus success stories from aggregators who are also SMEs, to encourage them," he said.

Later, he hopes that SME players can become part of the supply chain of aggregators and large export-scale businesses.

“This activity is a forum for SMEs to interact and introduce each other's business (company profile). By building a network (networking), it will establish collaboration and synergy between fellow SMEs to create and produce new creative products with export quality," he said.

The owner of PT Homeware Internasional Indonesia, Edmond Setiadarma, claims to be committed to helping MSME players in exporting.

“Not all MSMEs have access to export markets and large production capacities, so we help collect their products so that they can meet buyer demands. Generally, orders from abroad have high demand specifications, we standardize the product,” said Edmond.