Indonesia Supports Small-Scale Tourist Guide Services to Get Business Licenses

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – The Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry said that it will support local tourist guide services to get their licenses to run micro-businesses.

The program is carried out by the ministry in collaboration with the Bali Provincial Government, Micro Save Consulting, and Desa Wisata Nusantara (Dewisnu) Foundation.

Under the collaboration with Mercy Corps Indonesia, the program will map out the potential of micro business in tourist destinations and expand the recruitment of assistants for the formal transformation of micro business or locally known as Transfumi in Bali. It is also to accelerate the issuance of business identification number (NIB) for the micro business, including the tour guide services as well as food and beverage business in tourist destinations.

The ministry’s deputy for micro-enterprises Eddy Satriya said his office supports the acceleration of obtaining business licenses for tourist guide services and the food and beverage sector in Bali.

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“As we all know that business sector is severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in Bali where many freelance tour guides rely on individual tourists or travel agencies which have no business licenses. Consequently, they can’t have access to financial services and various government programs,” said Eddy in a statement on Wednesday, October 27.

Therefore, his office has expanded the recruitment of Transfumi assistants to speed up the process of obtaining business permits. Many micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) players argue that only large-scale businesses need business permits and obtaining business licenses is uneasy and time-consuming.

As derivatives of Job Creation Law, Government Regulation No. 7/2021 on ease, protection, and empowerment of cooperatives, micro, small and medium enterprises has been issued. This mentions the simplification of issuing business permits. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of the aforementioned government regulation through coordination with stakeholders.

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“In 2021, the ministry has encouraged the issuance business identification number in the context of transforming micro-enterprises from informal to formal,” said Eddy.

With the establishment of the formal transformation of the micro business as one of the ministry’s strategic steps, it could pave the way for more cooperation with organizations and the MSME associations.

“Finally, we hope that the informal micro-enterprises that get working capital aid [BPUM] can use the funds productively,” said Eddy.

(Writer: Elsa Catriana | Editor: Ambaranie Nadia Kemala Movanita)

Source: https://money.kompas.com/read/2021/10/27/152011926/kemenkop-ukm-dukung-percepatan-legalitas-usaha-mikro-jasa-pramuwisata?page=all#page2.