Easier banking access for small businesses to reduce inequality

Makassar, South Sulawesi-wapresri.go.id The best way to reduce economic inequality, Vice President Jusuf Kalla believes, is by giving easier access to banking for small businesses to encourage them to develop to larger businesses.

“Small businesses [should] have better [banking] access and then [we should] educate and encourage them. [This will in turn] increase revenues, provide more employment, and create harmony for this nation,” said the Vice President at the ground-breaking ceremony of BRI (state-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia) Center of Microfinance at the Hasanuddin University in Makassar on Monday (Feb. 27 ).

In addition, the Vice President said, regions that have the culture of entrepreneurship should be developed to promote the economy of their surrounding.

“We have such culture of entrepreneurship here in South Sulawesi,” he affirmed.

According to the Vice President, with population of about 255 million people, Indonesia must have a minimum of 10 entrepreneurial training centers as hubs for entrepreneurs, especially small businesses, to be educated, motivated, and given easier access to banking services.

“This is to make them ready, [and thus] they would not be confused about regulations on capital lending and so on,” he said.

The Vice President confirmed, reducing economic inequality has become one of the priorities of the government for the sake of equitable economy.

Inequality, he said, will bring disharmony which is harmful to the integrity of the nation.

“The biggest problems of this country, as I said yesterday in Ambon, are how to move forward together and how to reduce inequality,” he asserted.

Therefore, the Vice President hoped, this Center of Microfinance which is founded in  collaboration between BRI and the Hasanuddin University, could be a training center for entrepreneurs, as well as a medium to overcome the problem of financing for small entrepreneurs.

Concluding his speech, the Vice President reminded all participants who are mostly entrepreneurs to continue developing their entrepreneurial skills by joining trainings provided by the center.

“When you stop learning, you stop growing. Education will surely contribute to our progress,” he said.

In line with the Vice President, in his speech, BRI CEO Asmawi Syam hoped the Center of Microfinance will become a pioneer in improving the entrepreneurial development system which is deemed still staggering today.

Meanwhile, on the same occasion the Governor of South Sulawesi province Syahrul Yasin Limpo responded positively to the declaration of the Hasanuddin University as a center for the development of micro-businesses in South Sulawesi and surrounding areas.