Indonesian minister calls for improving digital literacy in e-commerce

Jakarta (ANTARA) –
Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) Teten Masduki has stressed the importance of building digital literacy among e-commerce consumers to prevent them from being deceived into purchasing cheap but low-quality imported products.

“Consumers shopping online are easily lured by cheap imported products, many of which are of deceptive quality,” he said in a statement issued by his ministry on Saturday.

At an event to mark the National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Day, Masduki said that if consumers were more aware of online shopping, sales of higher-quality local products would also increase.

He noted that the digital economy is growing at a rapid pace, leading to increasingly fierce competition between large companies and international e-commerce platforms.

“This also creates challenges, especially in the context of predatory pricing,” he added.

Masduki expressed concern over the dominance of imported products on e-commerce platforms, pointing out that around 90 percent of goods offered on such platforms are imported, making it difficult for local SMEs to compete.

The Ministry of Commerce has issued a regulation aimed at ensuring comprehensive protection for SMEs in the era of the digital economy.

According to Masduki, the digital market is an important accelerator for SME business development.

Citing the MSME Empowerment Report 2022, he said that digitalisation has helped improve the business performance of SMEs.

Thanks to digitalization, sales increased by 84.2 percent, operational efficiency improved by 73 percent, market expansion reached 62.8 percent and cost efficiency increased by 50.7 percent, he added.

Masduki expressed hope that the private sector will continue to prioritise domestic products and work closely with SMEs, the government and other private entities.

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