The Strategic Role of MSME Challenges in the Covid-19 Situation

Abstract

The poverty and unemployment rates in Indonesia are still very large. The number of poor people was recorded at around 29.13 million people while the absolute number of unemployed, namely those who do not have a job, is no less than 12 million people. A synergistic and comprehensive program is needed to overcome this. Thus, the small and medium enterprises sector can be expected to overcome one of the main problems in this country, namely the problem of poverty and unemployment. Therefore, reducing unemployment requires a paradigm shift that cannot be implemented on a large scale business (capital market), but provides more opportunities for people's economic business units, including micro, small and medium enterprises. MSMEs have been able to prove themselves as one of the solutions for the very high growth of the new workforce in Indonesia. The intrinsic properties of their business spring or even non formal make SMEs are able to provide business opportunities among household scale industries that were encountered in each area. Its significant role in labor absorption makes MSMEs very effective as tools to strengthen national stability.