SLEMAN - The majority of MSMEs in the Special Region of Yogyakarta is waiting for the government assistance to expand the marketing aspects in the current pandemic conditions. In addition, MSMEs hope that the government can find information or mediation for marketing. Sri Nurkyatsiwi, the Head of the Office of Cooperatives and

SMEs DIY, expressed the hope of MSME entrepreneurs when presenting the "Regional Economic Recovery Policy in Safeguarding Resilience of Covid-19 Affected Areas", at the State Defence Week Webinar organized by UPN "Veteran" Yogyakarta, Tuesday (5/19/5).

Based on a survey conducted by the DIY Government, the other expectation of MSMEs is that the government can issue a policy to buy the local MSME products. Also, it can be facilitating warehouse and marketing along with curation, as well as providing capital assistance.

"From this basis, we want to build a marketplace, and the DIY Government helps the free shipping. It's been running for a week," he said.

The policy of purchasing MSME products has been followed up with a DIY Governor Circular to buy the local products.

The Alumni of UPNVY Agribusiness Management revealed that the purchasing power of the people is currently decreasing which is resulting in the flow of demand that is also being restrained. As a result, the production capacity is also not optimal which affects to the reducing or rationalizing the workforce and weakening the ability to pay loans.

At present 58.4% of UMKM DIY experiences limited raw materials. In terms of production costs, it causes the majority of MSMEs to experience an increase in raw material prices in the range of 25-50% compared to normal conditions.

The MSMEs performance decline causes 46.3% of MSMEs to layoff, both temporarily deciding or laying off workers. MSMEs are the sector that has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic because of experiencing market pressures or declines which are affected by the decline in income. (wwj / PR)