Jakarta. FMCG giant Danone Indonesia is teaming up with Umar Usman Business School to help micro, small and medium enterprises –or MSMEs– flourish. 

 The two recently hosted the 2022 Entrepreneur Most Festival at the school’s Khadijah Learning Center. The festival marked the end of the 2022 batch of the Damping program – Danone’s flagship initiative on MSME empowerment. Talk shows and bazaars were also part of the festival. Participants could tune in to discussions on what entrepreneurs should watch out for next year. The 2022 Entrepreneur Most Festival also saw the launch of the Damping Mart as part of the Damping Hub.

“MSMEs have a significant impact on the economy. Danone Indonesia would like to be a company that brings benefits to the people, not just through our business and health products, but also our initiatives,” Vera Galuh Sugijanto, the VP general secretary at Danone Indonesia, said. 

Vera attributed Danone Indonesia’s growth to the collaboration with multiple stakeholders, among others, MSMEs. “We have worked with Umar Usman Business School since 2020 through the Damping Program as part of our commitment to support MSMEs growth and bring health to as many Indonesians as possible,” she added.

Some of the Damping programs in 2022 include business education webinars, mentorship, thematic training, business incubators, coaching clinic, business services, and networking. 

The exclusive mentorship program focuses on empowering MSMEs by improving their entrepreneurship mindset. It also helps MSMEs to work on their product design and improve their finances and marketing. To date, the Damping program has empowered more than 5,000 entrepreneurs. More than 5,000 entrepreneurs have become beneficiaries of this program. The mentorship program has 2,300 alumni.

The Damping program received praise from the SME Ministry. “Incubation process enables entrepreneurs to be resilient and ready to face business challenges. The government encourages entrepreneurs to continue to grow for a more advanced Indonesia by 2030,” Christina Agustin, the ministry’s deputy assistant for business enterprise incubation said on behalf of SME Minister Teten Masduki.

South Tangerang SME Agency head Warman Syanudin also commented on the Damping initiative on behalf of Deputy Mayor Pilar Saga. 

“We are thankful for the Damping program, which has recorded more than 5,000 beneficiaries. South Tangerang becomes [the city] which benefits from this initiative the most. Hopefully, there will be more young people that run MSMEs in South Tangerang. We can always team up to provide that platform through Damping,” Warman said.

Umar Usman Education Foundation chairman Asep Hendriana added that he hoped “The program can be an impetus to our shared goal of supporting the advancement of MSMEs and ramping up Indonesia’s entrepreneur ratio.”