Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Teten Masduki encouraged birdcage artisans who are members of the Mekarsari Jaya Mandiri Entrepreneurs and Bamboo Artisans Association to register for Single Business Number (NIB).
“We will continue to transform the (birdcage business) from informal to formal business. Currently, the legality of business is enough with NIB,” Masduki remarked when visiting the Kubangsari Jaya birdcage industry, Mekarsari Village, Selaawi Subdistrict, Garut District, West Java, as quoted from his statement here on Sunday.
According to him, by having NIB, informal entrepreneurship can become a formal business, then artisans will obtain many benefits and facilities such as access to financing, markets, and so on.
One of the accesses to cheap financing is the smallholder business credit (KUR) which has a very affordable interest of only three percent, he explained.
Not only registering for Single Business Number, but Masduki also encouraged artisans to consolidate themselves into a foundation of legal agencies called cooperatives because associations are not legal institutions.
“Currently, there is no longer money assistance in the form of grants. (However), we will strengthen cooperatives in terms of capital and institution,” he added.
On the same occasion, one of the artisans, Cecep Saripudin, explained that the number of artisans that join the association is two thousand people, who produce about 300 birdcages per day.
He admitted that his party has no problem regarding the manpower who craft the birdcages, even raw materials and marketing.
“We train young villagers who can help the work. It is not difficult as this is a generation-to-generation profession,” Saripudin explained.
According to him, the product marketing of birdcages of Mekarsari Village has spread to Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, Central Java, and East Java. However, the only challenge this artisan community faces is business capital.
Source: Antara News