The Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (UKM) strives to maintain the sustainability of UKM and UMKM businesses in Indonesia. One of them is by asking e-commerce service providers to limit sales of products from abroad.
Minister of Cooperatives and UKM, Teten Masduki, said that he appreciated Shopee for supporting the growth and sustainability of the UMKM business in Indonesia by curating incoming foreign products.
"This is so as not to kill Indonesian UMKM. This needs to be appreciated as a follow-up between the meeting between the Ministry of Cooperatives and UMKM Shopee to close access to 13 types of goods or products from abroad," he said.
Teten explained that these products include hijab, Muslim clothing, Muslim women's tops, men's Muslim clothing, mukena, children's Muslim clothing, prayer equipment, batik to kebaya.
He mentioned that the potential for UMKM products is quite large, namely around Rp. 300 trillion. Therefore, support is needed so that UMKM can continue to develop.
Shopee Indonesia Director Handika Jahja revealed that with this restriction, Shopee restricted access from various countries that previously joined the sales system. From the search, there are sellers from China to South Korea.
"For which countries are restricted, these are from all over the country and sellers from abroad are closed to protect local sellers in the country. The total closed shops are still controlled because the closures are carried out every day, later they can be shared," he explained.
Handika explained that the government continues to discuss and direct the restrictions on 13 types of business. Then Shopee also continues to encourage local entrepreneurs to provide support to businesses that produce local goods.
"This can be our first study, hopefully we can collaborate to continue to advance local products so that they can be even wider," he explained.
Previously, it was busy when purchasing goods from China using the name Mr Hu. At that time Mr Hu was judged to be able to kill UMKM actors in Indonesia for selling products at low prices.
