JAKARTA — The role of export businesses is not only to generate economic benefits, but also to help improve social, environmental and human welfare. Efforts to improve this welfare will be able to run optimally through neat collaboration between business people and social institutions. For this reason, on Thursday (14/3/2024), Dompet Dhuafa together with export business players held a collaboration forum at Menara Kadin Indonesia, Setiabudi, South Jakarta.
The event was titled Exporter’s Meet Up: Meaningful Network & Social Engagement was attended by Dompet Dhuafa’s Director of Resource Mobilisation, Etika Setiawanti. Then, one of the sessions that became a series of events was a talk show filled by Mutia Safitri as a Practitioner of PT Asuransi Asei Indonesia, Irman Adi Purwanto Moefthi as an Associate Expert Trade Analyst, Dit. Primary Product Export Development, Directorate General of National Export Development, Ministry of Trade, and Maulana Hakim as CEO of Teguk Indonesia & USA.
In her presentation, Mutia Safitri mentioned that currently the higher exports are actually from MSME players. Therefore, the opportunity for other MSMEs is wide open. In addition, she saw that there has been a market shift. In the past, the export conversation was to countries such as China, Japan, America, and countries with other global markets. However, those markets are in traditional market trading, and in terms of regulations to accept goods into their countries, they are more numerous and complicated.
‘Certification/legality is definitely a major concern. If we talk about the first exporter or start-up, it must be a bit difficult. Now, the shift has begun to shift to non-traditional markets. That is, markets where demand has started to increase, but the rules are still not too strict,’ he explained.
Furthermore, Irman Adi Purwanto revealed that Indonesia has a large number of MSMEs. However, they contribute very little to national export activities. In addition, its Gross Domestic Product is high. So, when compared to neighbouring countries, Indonesia is still inferior in terms of exports.
‘For Indonesia itself, actually, although our MSMEs are very large, there are around 60 million MSME units, but they still contribute around 15 per cent to national exports. Even our GDP is still quite large, which is almost 60 per cent. However, Indonesia’s contribution compared to surrounding countries, such as Singapore, is almost 40 per cent of its export contribution,’ he explained.
Then how to attract the market so that export products can compete? Irman said that one of the things that attracts the market is halal products. Halal certification has an important role to attract buyers in the global market. Not only that, the social values behind the products must also be present. According to Irman, this is also what Gen Z is looking for. As is known, Gen Z now dominates the demographics.
This concept is like what Teguk Indonesia has done. Teguk became an Indonesian beverage brand that was able to enter the US market. Maulana Hakim revealed that the success of this effort, apart from culinary expertise, was also due to social values.
‘In New York, we came from one tavern. Of course, this adjusts to the quality there. But on that side, we are consistent to apply this product has social value and of course halal,’ said Maulana.
For this reason, Dompet Dhuafa then invited exporters in Indonesia to collaborate together. Dompet Dhuafa offers several possible cooperation schemes. In addition, as an institution that supports micro-economic development for MSME players and small traders, Dompet Dhuafa wants local products to be able to penetrate the global market.
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GM of ZIS Collection Dompet Dhuafa, Faqih Syarafaddin on his occasion also featured an inspirational story from a figure of Mang Ade. Mang Ade is one of the farmers who grew out of Dompet Dhuafa’s empowerment programme in Lembang, West Java. From a former drug addict, he is now able to turn into a person who employs poor farmers around him. Now, he and his farmer group have even been able to export their products abroad.
In line with what was presented by the speakers, Etika added that now Gen Z is the generation that dominates, even in terms of generosity. Dompet Dhuafa has a similar experience with market shifts. A few years ago, Dompet Dhuafa’s donors were dominated by Gen X and Gen Y. But now, it has shifted to Gen Z. The donation transactions may not be large, but they are still significant. The donation transactions may not be large, but they are numerous.
‘What makes us surprised is that most of them are start-up business people. They are very fond of donating, although the value is still less than the previous generation, but the intensity is quite frequent and numerous. This means that Generation Z has a high concern for others,’ said Etika.
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Of course, it would be very neat if Indonesian export products not only have halal value, but also have social value. In addition to having Islamic value, it also has philanthropic value. Dompet Dhuafa has partnered with many companies in this regard. There are five main pillars on which Dompet Dhuafa concentrates its empowerment, namely in addition to da’wah, there are also education, health, social / humanitarian, and economic.
This forum will later become a collaboration forum between Dompet Dhuafa and exporters. Not only for exporters who were present on this occasion, Dompet Dhuafa also opened the widest possible collaboration opportunities for exporters. Collaboration space for exporters with Dompet Dhuafa can be accessed at www.dompetdhuafa.org/exporter. (Dompet Dhuafa)
Text and Photo: Riza Muthohar
Editor: Dhika Prabowo