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AFTER THE initial launch last October in Kupang, now three of Indonesia’s digital giants – Grab, Emtek and Bukalapak are continuing the City of the Future (Real Collaboration for the Future) program in the city of Solo, with a target of more than 1,500 Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) players.
The MSME players who join are expected to be able to reach millions of Grab and Bukalapak consumers throughout Indonesia, as well as open up new income opportunities by owning a digital store.
According to the Mayor of Surakarta, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, said I appreciate the initiative of Grab, Emtek and Bukalapak in presenting the City of the Future program. The presence of this program is expected to improve the ability and quality of Solo small, medium enterprise (SMEs) in utilizing technology to face current challenges.
Gibran said that this acceleration of digitization helped local governments in driving regional economic growth. I invite Solo SMEs who are not yet part of the digital ecosystem, let’s immediately take advantage of this facility so that together we can move forward in introducing and marketing local Solo products,” added Gibran.
Meanwhile, President of Grab Indonesia, Ridzki Kramadibrata, later said that Grab together with Emtek and Bukalapak were ready to work with the Surakarta Government to oversee Solo to become a Smart City through the #KotaMasaDepan program.
“This program provides assistance and training so that MSMEs become more competitive and create new jobs. Hopefully our efforts to help MSMEs, especially those in small cities, can help the government achieve the digitalization target of 30 million MSMEs by 2024, as well as accelerate economic recovery efforts nation,” said Ridzki.
Future City is an extensive accelerator program targeting 10,000 MSMEs, held in stages until the second quarter of 2022 in Kupang, Solo, Gowa, Malang, Pekanbaru, focusing on three priorities, namely: Vaccination, Adoption of Digital Platforms [onboarding to the Grab application and Bukalapak] and Empowering MSMEs through training and assistance for business development through digital technology.
Training and mentoring
In the three pillars of the existing program, Grab, Emtek, and Bukalapak will combine their expertise to train and assist MSMEs in order to improve the ability of MSMEs to be ready to join the digital economy.
The scope of the Solo #KotaMasaDepan program consists of more than 1,500 MSME players in Solo onboarding to the Grab and Bukalapak platforms. Then there are promotions and price discounts in the Grab and Bukalapak ecosystems.
In addition, 54 selected MSMEs will take part in the accelerator program in managing businesses mentored by Bukalapak and Grab. Finally, the three best MSMEs will receive publications through the Emtek media network.
One of the participants of the Future City Accelerator program who has benefited from this program is Fahmi Rachmanda Putra, owner of Rachmajaya Woodcraft.
“We got a lot of experience in developing businesses in the City of Future accelerator program. Starting from training to the assistance provided so that we can maximize technology, like me, who can now do financial bookkeeping through a computer without having to use books manually,” explained Rachmanda.
Rachmanda added that this program also helps local MSME players like himself to be able to innovate to reach more consumers, not only in the city of Solo but also in remote parts of Indonesia.
“I thank you and I hope that programs like this can continue to be carried out regularly, so that more MSMEs in Solo go digital,” Rachmanda noted.
Currently, more than 10,000 MSME players have joined the Grab ecosystem, including Aditya Liliyan, owner of the Mixology Coffee culinary business.
“The City of Future accelerator program has helped us culinary business actors and small traders in improving the quality of our business so that we can still maintain our business even in the midst of a pandemic,” said Aditya.
Aditya explained that he and other MSME actors were given a series of training, webinar sessions and mentoring so that they could reach consumers outside the city of Solo.
“Our business is now growing and experiencing an increase in income by almost 100 percent. Hopefully this program can embrace more MSME players to join and feel the positive impact of using technology,” said Aditya.
Likewise, Managing Director, PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi, Tbk, Sutanto Hartono said EMTEK is committed to supporting the development of the MSME sector in Indonesia. Collaborating with Grab and Bukalapak, this program is expected to provide opportunities and competitiveness for local MSMEs in the era of digitalization that is developing so fast.
“With the same determination to make the daily lives of Indonesian people better through technology, we believe we can revive the wheels of the local economy which will later contribute to the Indonesian economy,” Sutanto affirmed.
In line with the President Director of PT Bukalapak.com, Tbk, Rachmat Kaimuddin also conveyed his commitment after more than a decade of the platform being present in Indonesia. Bukalapak is committed to continuing to support MSMEs to advance to class by creating access to a fair economy through the digital ecosystem, both online and offline.
The collaboration of Grab, Emtek and Bukalapak through the #KotaMasaDepan program is a real example of the joining of the ecosystem to increase MSMEs in Indonesia.
“We hope that this program can be a good step in accelerating the digitization of MSMEs in the city of Solo, as well as other cities in Indonesia,” added Rachmat.
Support the development of Solo Smart City
Along with the presence of #KotaMasaDepan in Solo, Grab also launched GrabKitchen at Pasar Gede, a cloud kitchen concept that unites culinary MSMEs in a central facility to respond to unmet market demand in certain areas.
GrabKitchen utilizes data to identify and map gaps in customer demand to reach more consumers through GrabFood, so that culinary MSMEs are more widely known by the public and can increase sales opportunities.
In addition, participating MSMEs can access a series of trainings on how to sell online, do marketing using social media and how to improve the quality of trademarks and food menus.
On the same occasion, to strengthen the electric vehicle ecosystem, Grab also handed over 400 units of electric motorbikes intended for GrabBike driver-partners and Grab delivery partners in Solo which were handed over directly by the President of Grab Indonesia, Ridzki Kramadibrata to the Mayor of Surakarta, Gibran Rakabuming Raka.
“Since 2019, we have put the company’s focus on developing an electric vehicle ecosystem through the #LangkahHijau commitment in Indonesia,” Ridzki added.
Ridzki said that his party was very proud to be able to help the Surakarta city government again to develop a Solo Smart City by utilizing Grab’s inclusive technology through electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions.
“Not only that, we also introduced GrabKitchen Pasar Gede to support the business progress of MSME players in the culinary field in Solo City,” he added.
In closing, Ridzki considered that the innovation of electric vehicles and the cloud kitchen concept is in line with GrabForGood’s mission to participate in regional development in Indonesia and use technology to create a sustainable impact on society. [antaranews/photo special]
