INDONESIA seeks to attract at least 5 trillion rupiah (US$348 million) in foreign and direct investment to its micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) next year to boost their competitiveness as the nation rebounds from the pandemic.

That would be an 83 percent jump from the 2.73 trillion rupiah raised in 2021 that went to 383 MSMEs, the nation’s Investment Coordinating Agency said in a statement Saturday.

President Joko Widodo is directing big businesses to collaborate with MSMEs to provide training and help them gain international market access, investment chief Bahlil Lahadalia said.

The Southeast Asian nation has more than 64 million MSMEs, employing roughly 97 percent of the country’s workforce accounting for more than 60 percent of gross domestic product. More than 30 million MSMEs have closed down in the pandemic, according to data from the Indonesian MSMEs Association, with those in agriculture, fishery and trade among the most affected.

The World Bank sees Indonesia’s economy would continue to recover with various sources of growth. The World Bank has estimated that Indonesia’s economy would grow by 3.7 percent in 2021 and by 5.2 percent in 2022, if there would be no other severe waves of COVID-19 and the country’s vaccination rate continues to be high.(SD-Agencies)