VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Director of MSME Development and Consumer Protection of the Bank of Indonesia, Bandoe Widiarto, during a training event for national economic journalists in Jakarta, Friday (26/3/2021). ANTARA/Astrid Faidlatul Habibah.

Applying digitalization measures can boost the resilience of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) amid the crisis arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bank Indonesia (BI).

"The lessons that we learnt from this pandemic, based on several surveys that we conducted showed that MSMEs that conducted digital transformation can relatively be resilient," Director of MSME Development and Consumer Protection of BI, Bandoe Widiarto, noted during a training event for national economic journalists in Jakarta, Friday.

According to Widiarto, the survey indicated that 12.5 percent or 370 MSMEs were not impacted by the pandemic, while 87.5 percent or 2,600 MSMEs were affected since they failed to transform digitally.Meanwhile, out of 370 MSMEs, 27.6 percent experienced a growth in sales amid the pandemic, whilst 72.4 percent were in a considerably stable state.

"Some 27.6 percent of the MSMEs recorded an increase in their sales, as they were able to conduct online marketing strategies," he expounded.

Speaking in the context of the survey result, Widiarto noted that the central bank and regional governments had relentlessly pushed digitalization programs for MSMEs in order to maintain resilience in their roles to sustain economic recovery.

"The MSME digitalization program is being pushed forward since based on the data, those that managed to transform were able to survive," he pointed out//ANT