Women account for over 60% of Indonesia's GDP

Women contribute 60% of Indonesia's GDP due to their major engagement in small and medium businesses, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

"Indonesia's women play a vital role, particularly in small and medium businesses.
"This means that women account for 60% of our GDP," she said during a side event at the Commission on the Status of Women's 66th Session in Jakarta on Thursday.

Later, the minister stated that women owned roughly 50 percent of Indonesia's 60 million small and medium businesses at the micro level.

Women own 56 percent of small firms, whereas 34 percent of medium-sized businesses are held by women.
This truth suggests that the smaller the company or economic activity, the more likely it is to be held by a woman.

Small and medium firms can supply up to 67 percent of jobs in Indonesia, according to Indrawati, implying that women play a vital role in job creation.

Given that women's access to finance is still limited, the government has a nationwide financial inclusion initiative with a goal of enlisting 90 percent of women by 2024.

Women continue to have limited access to financial institutions, with only 18 percent of total bank loans going to small and medium businesses.

As a result, the government has mandated that banks divert at least 30% of their credit to small and medium-sized firms.

"This is still an issue for some banks since they aren't used to servicing small-dollar loans, particularly those owned by women," Indrawati noted.

She noted that efforts to attain financial inclusion for 90 percent of Indonesian women are made through a variety of programmes, including education and financial literacy as well as digital technology access.

The minister noted that efforts to improve financial inclusion for women had been made in a variety of ways, including through the $10 million Family Hope Program (PKH).

"We expect that by allowing women to register bank accounts and receive government remittances, the programme would promote financial inclusion," she said.