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Presented at
I
would like also to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks
for the invitation from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs
of the United Nations to attend this important event; the closing
ceremony of the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives. The
2012 International Year of Cooperatives under the theme of
“Cooperatives Enterprises Build a Better World” has given us chances to
highlight and promote the success of cooperatives in our country. Their
economic and social roles and their contribution to the wealth of our
society have been encouraging us and our people to further develop
cooperatives in numerous sectors to support our daily needs. The
Indonesian economic condition in recent five years is exhibiting a
promising trend. The growth rate now is 6.4%, wherein 2008, it
was 6%, and by 2014 the growth rate is targeted to reach 7.7%. The poverty level now is 11.69%, wherein 2008, it was 15.4 %, and by 2014, it is targeted to decrease to 10%. In addition, the unemployment rate has also been decreasing. It is now at 6.32%, where in 2008, it was 8.4 %, and by the year 2014, it is targeted to decrease to level of 5%. Indonesian government believes that the above achievements were mostly contributed by cooperatives and SMEs and the President of the Republic of Indonesia, DR. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has declared that cooperatives and SMEs are the most appropriate vehicles to reduce unemployment and poverty. That is way, we have to encourage more the role of cooperatives. The government takes initiatives to realize strong, genuine, modern and professional cooperative societies. The policies are undertaken by creating conducive environment, strengthening their institutional capacity, providing valuable resources and opportunities to engage in various sector of economy. The government, furthermore, encourages and provides supports in terms of startup capital, soft loan, guarantee fund, training and marketing facilities. In the implementation of the policies and programs, the national government under coordination of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs is in close collaboration with the Indonesian Cooperative Council and provides budget support to execute its programs. The growth of Cooperatives movement in Indonesia is indeed supported by the stable national economic growth and the development strategies known as triple track plus strategies characterized by pro-growth with equity, pro-job, pro-poor and pro-environment. Pro-growth with equity strategy aims at creating equitable growth for 240 million Indonesian people which are spread across more than 17,000 islands. One of the important programs undertaken to facilitate cooperatives is through provision of micro credit scheme known as KUR which is guaranteed by the government up to 80 %.In the period of 2007 to October 2012, the amount of disbursement reached USD 9.67 billion with the number of borrowers reached 7,291,326 people and we also provide revolving fund with subsidized interest rate for cooperatives. By having these strategies, there are many cooperative enterprises and SMEs migrate to the middle class business category. Under suitable economic performance, the national statistics shows cooperative significant figures, where;
Since
cooperatives have important role in reducing unemployment and
poverty, the government carries out a nationwide cooperative campaign
known as Gemaskop with the main objective to enhance awareness and
encourage society to joint cooperative business activities.
Furthermore, the role of cooperative to nurture cooperative
entrepreneurship has also been one of our strategic programs. In line with the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives declared by the United Nations, the Indonesian government and cooperatives joint committee has been organizing numerous activities to raise public awareness on the vital contributions of cooperative enterprises to poverty reduction, unemployment reduction and social integration. The activities undertaken in 2012 as follows:
The
new revised cooperative law provides a strong foundation for
cooperatives to progress, more protection to the interest of the
members and to ensure genuine and professional cooperative enterprises.
Under this new law, the values and principles of cooperatives are
strongly secured. One man one vote, and cooperative as an
autonomous organization are fully implemented. Other
break through mandated by this cooperative law are the establishment of
Cooperative Deposit Insurance Agency (LPS)and Saving and Loan
Cooperative Supervision Agency (LPKSP). Supervision
on saving and loan cooperative is another priority program of the
government as mandated by the new law to protect the interest of the
society from improper conducts of cooperatives. Under the new
cooperative law, the government is responsible to supervise saving and
loan cooperatives to ensure that their services are dedicated to their
members only. By
having the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives declared by the UN,
many activities have been done to increase the awareness of the people
toward cooperatives. We do hope that the collaborative efforts
need to be continued to realize more significant role of cooperatives
to reduce global unemployment and global poverty. Of course, there are
many more efforts to be done to strengthen our cooperatives.  |