SOUTH TANGERANG —– In an effort to empower the community economically by supporting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Dompet Dhuafa, together with Danone Indonesia, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, the South Tangerang City Government, and the Umar Usman Business Campus, inaugurated the MSME Service Center, Damping Center, on Thursday (06/16/2022) at the Umar Usman Business Campus Building, South Tangerang.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Destri Anna Sari, S.H., Deputy Secretary for Entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, H. Pilar Saga Ichsan, ST as Deputy Mayor of South Tangerang, Prima Hadi Putra as Director of Business, Operations & Support at Dompet Dhuafa, Asep Hendriana as Chair of the Umar Usman Education Foundation, Lily Zulaeha as Director of the Umar Usman Business Campus, and Karyanto Wibowo as Sustainable Development Director at Danone Indonesia.
The Damping Center is envisioned as a facility that can be used for SME consultations, business incubation center development, and educational centers with coaches. The inauguration of the Damping Center was held in a hybrid format with the theme “The role of business collaboration in facing competition and achieving business efficiency.” The speakers were Handoko Hendroyono, Co-Founder of M Bloc & Filosofi Kopi, and Etik Nur Kristiani, Founder of Dbeja Cemilan. They were also participants in the Damping Incubator in 2021, where they shared insights on the importance of collaboration in supporting business development.
Deputy Secretary for Entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, Destri Anna Sari, S.H., said, “Businesses in Indonesia are dominated by micro enterprises, so the government is working to increase the number of small and medium-sized enterprises in order to strengthen our economic structure and achieve an entrepreneurship ratio of 3.95% by the end of 2024. Additionally, we also need productive entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs who can create new job opportunities. The government issued Presidential Regulation No. 2 of 2022 to accelerate the development of national entrepreneurship with the aim of synergizing and strengthening program coordination in the hope of cross-sector collaboration. Thus, the mentoring program carried out by Danone Indonesia and the Umar Usman Business Campus is expected to foster entrepreneurship that can create jobs and improve Indonesia’s economic structure.”
H.Pilar Saga Ichsan, ST, Deputy Mayor of South Tangerang, also expressed his enthusiasm and full support for the Damping Center. “SMEs are not just about producing goods but also about running a business effectively and marketing it. In developing SMEs, there are five key elements: the government, the business sector, the academic world, academics, and the community itself, as well as the media, who need to collaborate to support SMEs in recovering post-pandemic. Therefore, we hope that the presence of the Damping Center and the Creative Economy Building owned by the city of South Tangerang will become a separate space for continued collaboration. We continue to support the activities that will be carried out by Danone and Umar Usman Campus so that they can help the residents of South Tangerang become more empowered and improve their economy,” he said.
Vera Galuh Sugijanto, Vice President and General Secretary of Danone Indonesia, also stated, “In line with our business journey, MSMEs certainly play a very important role for Danone Indonesia in providing nutritional and hydration products for the Indonesian people. To that end, we are launching the DAMPING CENTER, which was officially inaugurated today as part of the DAMPING Program that has been running since 2020. This is a concrete effort on our part to build physical facilities that can be used for MSME consultations (coaching clinics), business incubation centers, and education centers where face-to-face meetings with coaches can be held, especially for MSMEs located in South Tangerang and its surrounding areas.”
There are many activities that will be carried out through the Damping Center, including business consultations, business incubation, MSME training centers, and other business access and services. The Damping Center aims to provide MSMEs with a space to learn, collaborate, and meet face-to-face. Business actors, especially those currently located in the South Tangerang area and its surroundings, can participate in various programs held at the Damping Center offline. Meanwhile, participants outside the area can take advantage of online facilities.
“Through the programs we are implementing, we hope to have a positive impact on economic development in Indonesia. Of course, this program will not stop here, but will continue in line with our goal of having a positive impact on as many people as possible, both through the nutrition and hydration products we offer and other sustainability programs we are implementing,” added Vera. (Dompet Dhuafa / PR)