Small Businesses Anchor of Country's Economy

Jakarta (Antara) - Former trade minister Gita Wirjawan said small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) constituted the anchor the country's national economy in the face of global financial crisis and free market adverse impact. "When major companies went bankrupt amid economic crisis, SMEs were able to survive and served as an anchor of our economy," Gita said in his electronic message to Antara here on Sunday. Gita who is also one of the 11 participants of the ruling Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Convention, made the remarks in a dialog with hundreds of SMEs players in Cilegon, Banten. "It is a fact that SMEs are able to survive at a time of economic crisis. They are strong against the waves of crisis," he added. He said that with the SMEs, a total of 57 million people could serve as a wonderful force to advance national economy. "Unluckily, and this should become attention as only 22 million of them or 40 percent could have access to funding sources," the former minister said. Therefore, he said, to maximize their roles, SMEs must be assisted so that they could have access to funding sources, thus advancing them and making them competitive. So, they would not be strong only in the face of domestic economic crisis but also of in the global one. (*)