Jakarta (VNA) - The Indonesian government is set to disburse 22 trillion rupiah (1.49 billion USD) on August 17 to millions of unbankable micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) to help them start over during the slowing, pandemic-hit economy.

According to Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Teten Masduki, funds have been allocated for the first phase of the programme, which will see 9.1 million MSMEs receive 2.4 million rupiah each. It eventually aims to provide cash transfers for 12 million MSMEs.

He said the government has compiled data on around 17 million MSMEs, and will verify the data so that the stimuli could be “well-targeted”.

Accounting for 60 percent of the GDP, MSMEs are among businesses hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

President Joko Widodo has ordered to allocate 123.47 trillion rupiah to support MSMEs, including capital provision for banks to accelerate the disbursement of loans and support loan interest rate, along with recently-announced cash assistance./.
VNA