Faculty of Economics and Business UGM established a partnership with Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), launching a 'BRI People's Entrepreneurship’ program. The signing of a memorandum of agreement was conducted by Director of Research and Training Center, Faculty of Economics and Business (P2EB), Anggito Abimanyu, and BRI Yogyakarta Regional Chairman, Eko Wahyu Andriastono, Tuesday (3/4) in the Auditorium of Pertamina Tower in the Faculty compound. Also attending the occasion was Director of MSME of BRI, Djarot Kusumayakti.
Anggito Abimanyu said this program was designed to create the best UGM entrepreneurs who are tough-minded, innovative and competitive. The program is also targeted to attract excellent UGM students to be innovative entrepreneurs.
"The program is intended to encourage the best UGM students to become entrepreneurs who can help create new jobs," he said.
Anggito added this program aims to build a new paradigm for outstanding students to become entrepreneurs. "Up to now, entrepreneurship is considered as a job obtained because of 'accidents', open to those who are unacceped in the standard workplace due to low GPAs. Therefore, we change the mindset that entrepreneurship is for excellent graduates, because self-employment is the foundation of the nation's economy," he explained.
According to Anggito, this program not only provides an opportunity for students to become entrepreneurs. They are expected to encourage the creation of new products that are innovative and creative, to improve the quality of market competition, and to strengthen the regional economy. It is expected to create graduates of the Faculty who become job creators. For BRI it will strengthen its image as a pro-SME bank.
BRI People's Entrepreneurship Program is for UGM senior students or alumni who at a maximum of three years ago graduated from UGM, students with a cumulative performance index (GPA) of at least 3.00. "There are three stages in this program, the selection made by the Faculty, research of product development using community environment development funds from BRI, and the stage of starting a business with bankable proposals to be BRI partners," Anggito said.
Anggito said that in one year they target to form 10 groups of entrepreneurs. It is expected in the next five years it will generate 50 groups of entrepreneurs to successfully manage their business. "Each group will receive a grant of 50 million rupiah for research and product development and 3 million rupiah incentives per month," he explained.
Djarot Kusumayakti said that 99.98 percent of business players in Indonesia are those engaged in the field of entrepreneurship and SMEs. This figure is able to absorb workers up to 91.8 million people.
"What is interesting here is the dominance of SMEs which is still so great. On the other hand, workers that are employed are also large, which serve to reduce the burden on the state because they create jobs. In this case the entrepreneur is positioned as a locomotive to run the country," he said.
Almost similar to Anggito, Djarot said that to be entrepreneurs is not designed or prepared, but rather it is a necessity. The release of this program is expected to produce innovative and competitive entrepreneurs.
"The country will be safe if it has more than 2% of entrepreneurs, while the number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia is still less than 1% so that the nation’s burden is too heavy. Hopefully, this program may generate excellent entrepreneurs that can help lift the burden of the country," he said.
BRI People’s Entrepreneurship program registration was opened in May 2012. Participants are required to submit an executive summary including full business plan. The final announcement will be delivered in July, followed by a presentation to investors in August. The announcement of winners will be done at the upcoming Faculty Anniversary in September.