Pertamina Targets 450 MSMEs to Upgrade through the UMKM Academy: Fast Track  

Jakarta, November 10, 2020 - Approaching Pertamina's 63rd Anniversary and the National Hero's Day, PT Pertamina (Persero), through the Partnership Program, held a kick-off program for the Pertamina UMKM Academy: Fast Track. This event was held to encourage economic heroes or Pertamina's fostered MSMEs partners to upgrade. It is targeted that as many as 450 fostered partners will upgrade after participating in the event held until December 15.

Vice President of Corporate Communication of Pertamina, Fajriyah Usman, said the UMKM Academy program is an acceleration program for MSMEs upgrade. The purpose of graduating here is to meet some criteria for developing the production and marketing of these MSMEs.

These criteria include an increase in the number of employees, an increase in the value of loans, an increase in production capacity, an increase in turnover, involvement of the surrounding community to produce products, marketing of products outside the city/country, and obtaining national/international certificates. "The parameter of graduating MSMEs is that it has met at least one of these criteria," explained Fajriyah.

For the event's mechanism, curation and verification will first be carried out on the fostered partners (MB). Curation is done for MB with a minimum loan period of 1 year with current collectability. After that, 450 MB was selected and verified based on willingness to participate in the program, business conditions, and technology used to support the business.

Once verified, the fostered partners will be grouped based on the class of verification results. Namely, Go Modern, Go Digital, Go Online, and Go Global. With the number of participants, Pertamina UMKM Academy: Fast Track has 75 MB Go Modern, 150 MB Go Digital, 125 Go Online, and 100 MB Go Global. "With the cooperation of all parties, we are optimistic that this target can be achieved," she said.

According to Fajriyah, this program will be given to fostered partners ready to fill the national and/or world market through export activities. Participants will be given training on website creation, listings on e-commerce sites, marketing training, and motivation to grow and inspire other MSMEs. Then, there is training on the implementation of digital applications, social media, and product automation.

Then, more specifically, Pertamina will classify the curriculum for each class according to the guidance roadmap. For example, there will be a Training on Packaging, Branding, and Product Standardization curriculum in the Go Modern group. While in the Go Global group, there is a Fast Track curriculum to introduce SME exports.

"This program aims to make the fostered MSMEs partners experience a better change in conditions, from before joining the program and after joining the program. Of course, by proving the recording of the report by the companion. If achieved, the MSMEs can be said to have graduated," explained Fajriyah.

Present at the Pertamina UMKM Academy kick-off program on Tuesday (10/11), Tajudin Noor, Corporate Secretary of PT Pertamina (Persero); VP Corporate Communication of PT Pertamina (Persero) Fajriyah Usman; Chairman of ICSB Indonesia as well as Founder & Chairman of MarkPlus, Inc Hermawan Kartajaya; and parties from the ID SEED.

By upgrading the MSMEs class, it is hoped to support the government's efforts to realize economic independence and provide employment opportunities. "This is an implementation of the Goal 8 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is hoped that it can help people get decent jobs and encourage national economic growth," continued Fajriyah.

Meanwhile, Chairman of ICSB Indonesia, as well as Founder & Chairman of MarkPlus, Inc. Hermawan Kartajaya, added that his party is exceptionally proud to be part of the development of Indonesian MSMEs towards the international market. "Digitalization carried out by MSMEs must be carried out by OMNI, meaning online, offline, and continuous humanity," he said.

In his presentation, Hermawan said that the crisis conditions that occur should be momentum for awakening. Together with Pertamina, Hermawan believes that MSMEs can be pushed out of this crisis and bounce back to become one of the government assets in efforts to restore the national economy. "Economic recovery should not take more than two years. Therefore there needs to be an entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a marketing spirit so that MSMEs compete with each other to develop their business," he concluded. **