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AKARTA, Investortrust.id — The Indonesia Open Network is seen by the Indonesian Employers Association as a new lever to lift national MSME performance by aligning public policy, business execution, and open digital infrastructure into a single system, a move expected to convert MSME readiness into real economic scale.

Indonesia Open Network, or ION, is designed as an open digital trade layer rather than a standalone platform, providing shared protocols that allow MSMEs to connect across banking apps, telecom platforms, and corporate systems without repeated onboarding, lowering costs and expanding market access.

Apindo chairwoman Shinta W Kamdani said the potential direct impact on MSMEs was what drew the business group to support the initiative from the outset.

“What attracted Apindo from the very beginning is the fact that this system will primarily benefit our MSMEs. That is why we are here, because we truly believe this will be a game changer for MSMEs in Indonesia,” Shinta said at the Indonesia Open Network 2026 forum hosted by the Indonesia Economic Forum in Jakarta forum on Thursday, Feb 5, 2026.

She said Apindo’s participation also reflected support for the government’s MSME agenda, particularly that of the Ministry of MSMEs, describing ION 2026 as a curtain raiser under the theme The Big Unlock.

Shinta explained that the concept was not about opening a single sector, platform, or program, but about unlocking large scale economic participation by removing structural frictions that had long prevented millions of businesses from accessing markets, financing, and value chains.

She noted that MSMEs remained the backbone of Indonesia’s economy, contributing more than 60 percent of gross domestic product and absorbing nearly 97 percent of total employment.

The sector also accounted for more than 60 percent of total investment, yet its contribution to exports remained relatively low at around 15 percent, highlighting persistent structural constraints.

According to Shinta, MSME challenges were interconnected and ranged from market access and financing to workforce quality, legal governance, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building.

Many MSMEs remained disconnected from larger value chains, anchor buyers, and corporate ecosystems, prompting Apindo to make MSME development one of its core programs.

She said Apindo had rolled out multiple initiatives to strengthen MSME readiness, including the UMKM Merdeka program, which had evolved from a triple helix collaboration into a broader pentahelix ecosystem.

The program combined industry internships, student placements in small businesses, and hands on support in digital adoption, financial literacy, marketing, and business mentoring across 19 provinces.

Apindo also operated UMKM MyClass through online and offline channels in all 38 provinces, a Digital Learning Hub to boost digital capabilities, and the Apindo UAB FinLab UMKM Success Accelerator to support digital financing adoption.

“Beyond capacity building, Apindo also opens integration pathways for MSMEs into corporate ecosystems through business matching, supply chain access, and policy advocacy to reduce digital onboarding barriers and promote fairer e commerce practices,” Shinta said.

She added that Apindo worked closely with multiple ministries, including the Ministry of Higher Education and Technology and the Ministry of MSMEs, to ensure empowerment efforts were systemic and collaborative.

However, Shinta warned that readiness alone did not automatically lead to scale, citing Apindo surveys showing only 32.5 percent of MSMEs were satisfied with Indonesia’s digital infrastructure policies and just 12.4 percent of retail MSMEs had fully adopted digitalization.

She described the challenge as a conversion problem, the ability to turn readiness into scalable business outcomes.

Shinta summarized this with a simple formula, saying scalability was the result of readiness multiplied by open digital infrastructure.

In closed digital systems, she said MSMEs were forced to onboard repeatedly across platforms, markets became locked in, data was controlled by platforms, and costs rose due to dependency.

By contrast, open digital infrastructure allowed MSMEs to onboard once, operate across platforms, retain control of their data, and benefit from efficiency driven by competition.

Within this context, she said ION complemented existing MSME readiness programs by converting preparedness into measurable outcomes such as higher sales, job creation, and business resilience.

“ION allows-government policy direction, business execution, and digital infrastructure to move as one system,” Shinta said.

With that approach, she said Indonesian MSMEs were expected not only to go digital, but also to integrate into global value chains, reach more diverse markets, and remain resilient amid rapid economic change.