Unicorn E-Commerce Urged to Support Local Product Sales
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13 March 2019 09:19 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government urged online marketplace or e-commerce companies holding unicorn status to drive innovations to reduce the sales of imported consumer goods.
The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) head Bambang Brodjonegoro said that imported products still controlled the sales in the country’s e-commerce. This caused the hike of imported consumer goods throughout 2018 up to 22.03 percent year-on-year (yoy).
“Don’t be proud of a unicorn status when most of the product sales are imported ones,” said Bambang during a national working meeting of Trade Ministry Tuesday, March 12, at Shangri-La Hotel, Central Jakarta.
Read also: Unicorn Foreign Investments; Govt: No Need for Paranoia
At present, Indonesia has two unicorn e-commerce; Bukalapak and Tokopedia.
Earlier, the Industry Ministry’s director general for small and medium-scale businesses, Gati Wibawaningsih, said that 90 percent of products sales in all e-commerce in the country was imported goods. Local products played a small role in the sector despite the rapid growth of the industry.
Therefore, Bambang demanded the Trade Ministry meet the e-commerce entrepreneurs to put more concern on Indonesian micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME). If the issue is set aside, Bambang feared that it would stir a conflict considering the sector was controlled by imported goods.
FAJAR PEBRIANTO