The commemoration of National Batik Day in 2011 was held in Pekalongan, Central Java. Pekalongan is famous for  its  unique batik pattern  and well known as one of the center of Batik industry in Indonesia. The commemoration was attended by First Lady of Indonesia, several ministers, ambassadors, and others.  Some other events such as Batik exhibitions were held during the commemoration.

Ironically, many of batik craftsman still have been living  in miserable  life.This fact happened because most of them have difficulties  selling  their  product and getting the materials needed to make batik. Regarding that matter, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) as a bank which  has a strong commitment to support MSME,  initiated  to establish Batik Village Area. BRI had chosen  Desa Sumber Girang dan Desa Nropoh which are located in Rembang, Central Java as the pilot project.

BRI hopes  the Batik Village Area  will help Batik craftsman to  live in a good life through four offered programs such as Training, Exhibition, Partnership and Upgrading Infrastructure. The Batik Village Area is expected to enlarge the Batik production up to 20%  which in turn  will increase the Batik craftsman’s income gradually.

He owns a number of tile shops which generate sales over  hundred million rupiahs, but he is still  a humble person. That is the figure of Ade Rukmadi, 42 years old, the owner of Pusaka Keramik Shop located in Pasar Kamis Village, Tangerang.

His success didn’t come suddenly. Ade faced a harsh life as a street child during his childhood due to his parents’ poverty. He also ever worked as an illegal parking officer in order to get money. It was a good fortune that he met a very kind gentleman who hired him as his private driver . After a few years, that  gentleman asked Ade  to start his own business and lent Ade money  three million rupiahs as initial capital.

In 2000, Ade started up his business in recycling waste tile. The waste tile is defect products generated from a tile manufactory. Those products usually have irregular shape and diverse color. Every day, starting at midnight  until 4 a.m, Ade collected the waste tile. He bought that waste tile for 450 thousand rupiahs each pallet. Those waste tiles were then cleaned and grouped based on the color. Furthermore, those tiles were cut into regular shape and  the same size. Wrapped up with a simple packaging, those tiles were  ready to be sold.

As his business had been growing significantly, Ade initiated to propose loan to BRI Unit Sukamantri in 2003. He got a seven million rupiah loan  from BRI to expand his business and  never misused the trust from BRI . As the years go by, his loan amount has increased in accordance with his business development. Currently, Ade has obtained  a  99 million rupiah loan. Ade’s  success also brings job creation for the people surrounding his stores. There are 12 employees who help Ade running his business.  Ade is so grateful with BRI loan. ” My current business has been growing tremendously because of BRI. I would never forget and leave BRI”.

The program was conducted for three days on July 25-27, 2011. There were eleven delegates consist of senior manager of PPAF and number of CEO from PPAF’s partner organization. During the program, the delegates also visited BRI networking in BRI Bandung Regional Office such as BRI Unit Setiabudi, BRI Bandung Training Center and also Teras BRI.

Field visit to BRI Bandung Naripan Branch.

BRI  cheap market event  was held in 16 cities across Indonesia. Through this event, BRI distributed  39,800 packages of basic necessities consist of rice, sugar, fruit syrup, instant noodle, cooking oil, soy bean sauce, and biscuit. BRI sold those packages at reasonable price  which was 50% cheaper  than normal price . This event targeted only  for low income people.

Meanwhile, for  the other event, fast breaking and ifthar dinner with the orphans, BRI has conducted this event for seven times in a row. This year,  BRI invited 3,300 orphans from Jabodetabek region. This event was attended not only by  BRI’s Board of Directors and Commissioners but also Mr.  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the President of Indonesia.

Aiming to revitalize her factory, Eti injected capital that she obtained from selling her jewelry. With the assistance of four workers, the factory started running its production by processing 70 kg soybean. That tofu fabric was growing gradually. In 2004, for the first time, Eti got a loan from Bank Rakyat Indonesia for amount 10 million rupiah. Eti ever faced a bitter experience in partnership with a commercial bank. That is why she always reluctant to work with a bank. However, a good cooperation with BRI has caused her to forget her past experience.

In doing her business, Eti has run a partnership with tofu retailers. As the owner of the tofu factory, Eti  has responsibilities to provide production utilities and soybean. Meanwhile, the tofu retailers have responsibilities to buy the soybeans from her which then utilizing Eti’s factory  to produce  tofu. After all, those retailers sell their   tofu to customers and manage their own money. This partnership has benefited all parties. Eti earns money from selling the soybean, meanwhile the tofu retailers are able to produce tofu on their own by utilizing Eti’s production facilities for free and earn money from selling tofu. “Without the factory, the tofu retailers would not be able to sell tofu. Without the tofu retailers, the owner would not be able to earn money”, Eti says. She has  also implemented family relationship with her tofu retailers. Therefore, she provides housing for her tofu retailers at her factory. ” If we treat our partner as our own family, they would not leave us when we stumble” , Eti said.

Eti never misused BRI trust. She always pays her installment on time. As her business is growing well ,BRI is more confident to Eti’s capabilities in managing her business. This confidence is proven by increasing the amount of her loan every year based on the business progress. Currently, Eti got loan 100 million rupiah from BRI and the factory  has been able to process almost 1700 kg soybeans each day by working with 80 tofu retailers. Her success didn’t come suddenly. Eti has been through long and winding road. She was so desperate when her factory was ever destroyed by a heavy flooding.  “Thanks to BRI, the loan not only helped me to expand my business but also helped me to survive when I faced difficult times to rebuild my factory”, Eti said.

“I really liked the whole BRI program, especially the training content and our trip to Bandung. We were all amazed to see your state-of-the-art training center in Bandung. Being an HR specialist my self, I was most interested in BRI’s HR systems. The internal career path for a Credit/Loan officer in each unit was something that I would like to see in Pakistani MFIs and Banks too. We do have internal promotions in some organizations but then, the organizations here are not fortunate enough to have such great internal training centers to enable their staff for growth. “

“Our visits to the BRI unit, branch and regional office were all very useful. I especially liked the savings map in the Unit Manager’s office to keep track of the savings target areas. The information you provided on Kupedes and Simpedes gave us good ideas for our own product development and improvement. ShoreBank doesn’t do lending on its own but provides consultancy to other MF banks and NGOs. We now give BRI’s examples to our clients quite frequently.”

“One thing that I think can be improved is the language barrier. We really wanted to gain understanding of BRI loan application forms and other unit documents which were all in Bhasha. It would be great if you could keep English translations of all such credit and savings related documents. “

The lessons / experience that we’ve learned very fruitful and many parts are practically in here.

Wish you all the best and thanks again. Keep in touch.

Best Regards.

The way you are integrating the program with the various departments (divisions) of the Bank is also very good. Instead of allowing the generalist to provide all the experience of the Bank, I like your approach which gives a chance to the department (division) owners to present the specific experiences of BRI.

I also expect many growing MFIs like ours will continue to come to the program. Keep also providing information to the visors as per their information requirement, if they have clearly identified objectives.

Wish you all the best,
Thanks again for your thoughtful support.

Three years later, her business started to pay off. Her saving habit enabled her to buy 910 m2 piece of land for Rp 65 million. She didn’t have the money that much, of course; so, she paid the land in installments. She built a farmhouse on on the land and rented other 3 farmhouses. Because the quality of mushroom media that she produced was good, the other mushroom farmers began to buy from her. Since then, she began to sell media rather than mushroom itself. She did not make any advertisement about this; the one and only promotion that she probably used was the “words of mouth” of the buyers. This sales change from mushroom into media had positive impacts on her cash flow—accelerating capital turn over. All of the sales were in cash.

Due to her business expansion, she applied for a micro loan from BRI in 2005. She got Rp 4 million (USD 500) as her first loan from BRI Unit Cisarua. “I have to repay my loan well in order for me to be well-recognized by bank; just in case I need more money to develop my business, BRI will be easily approving it.” Therefore, this first loan was paid off within three months. Then she applied for the second loan as much as Rp 8 million (USD 1,000) for six months. She always repaid the loan well, which helped BRI Unit Cisarua make decision to grant her bigger loans—growing from Rp 10 million, Rp 15 million, Rp 30 million; and finally in 2008, she got Rp 65 million (USD 7,000) for three years.

From 2005 to 2008, she had 20 employees and 10 mushroom farmhouses. She bought a 294 m2 piece of land and built a house on it for her and husband, who got married with her in 2007. She even could afford a brand new van. Her hard work really pays off.

“Thank you very much for BRI, especially BRI Unit Cisarua, and all the staff who have given me supports in developing this business. To be successful, we don’t really have to work in the office.”

Until recently Mr. Suarbawa has employed 30 workers and five statue collectors, who are responsible for collecting statues from a number of locations famous for their statue production. The collected statues are then sold in his artshop.

On average, the monthly sale reaches IDR 400 million to IDR 500 million. Only on his artshop located in the village of Tengkulak are the statues sold. The buyers are mostly come from America, Australia, German, and Asian countries, like Japan, Korea, and China. To increase sales, “Dewa Malen” wood carving artshop works together with some tourism agencies like Pacto, KBA Tour, JBL Tours and Travel, Bali Harapan Utama Tour & Travel, Avi, Travindo, Asian Trail, Asia Collection, and Marin Tur., who will later take internacional visitors to the artshop.

Being asked about export opportunity, Mr. Suarbawa said that he is not exporting his statues, but he can help buyers to send big-size statues in cargo expedition.