iben's Blog

SOLO, KOMPAS.com - A businessman who wants to be successful should consider three important elements, namely better, cheap, and fast products, former Vice President Jusuf Kalla said.

Speaking at a "Business Gathering to Dig Muslim Economic Development Opportunities and Potentials' in the framework of a Muhammadiyah Central Leadership Economic and Entrepreneurship National Meeting, Kalla said many entrepreneurs in the country could not grow and develop fast enough because they failed to master the three important elements.

"Our entrepreneurs are unable to develop fast because they do not master or heed these three important elements," said Kalla, who is himself a successful businessman from South Sulawesi.

He said for a businessman to make good progress, capital was not the main issue, because it could be obtained from existing government banks. From the national banks, Kalla said both big and small businessmen could get the capital to run their business.

"To get capital, businessmen need not set up their own banks, because it will even burden them with huge costs," Kalla said.

Meanwhile, former National Mandate Party (PAN) chairman Sutrisno Bachir said Indonesia still had a small number of entrepreneurs, and to be a developed country at least two percent of its population should be businessmen. He said the ideal number of businessmen could be reached through education because Muhammadiyah had a lot of educational institutions.

"I hope Muhammadiyah educational institutions can educate as many entrepreneurs as possible," Sutrisno Bachir said, adding that Muhammdiyah had more than Rp1 trillion in assets to create reliable business cadres.

Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo on the occasion said that to move the people's economy the central government should not only think of big businessmen and ignore street vendors (PKL). He said if the street vendors were managed well by the government, they could become extraordinary people's economic power in the country.