TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The head of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), Suryamin, said that the government has to be more pro-active in developing small-and-medium enterprises by giving incentives, which could be handed out in the form of micro loans (KUR).

According to Suryamin, SMEs could provide employment for those who are affected by layoffs. "Once developed, we'll be able to see how SMEs could absorb just as much manpower as the formal, high-capital sectors can," said Suryamin at his office in BPS on Friday, February 5, 2016.

Suryamin said that there are around 3.5 million SMEs in Indonesia - significantly higher than the larger companies, which stood at around 24,000. "If one SME could employ three people, then our 3.5 million SMEs could provide alternative employment for 9 million workers," he said. "This is what the government advocating for - the empowerment of Indonesia's SMEs."


That said the layoffs - which is predicted to happen around the first Q3 of 2016 - will first impact mid-level managers, which will definitely pose an impact to the country's overall consumption levels. "We cannot yet calculate the exact economic cost of such layoffs," said Suryamin.

Suryamin also said that the corporate layoffs cannot be accused as the effect on government's decision to focus on SMEs as a part of its' economic policy. "We have yet seen if the growth of SMEs has any relationship to the massive layoffs [that is predicted to occur soon]," he said.

ARKHELAUS W