Padang businesspeople to meet

Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, The Jakarta Post, Padang

Some 700 businesspeople from the Minangkabau community in West Sumatra are slated to attend the three-day Minang Businesspeople Gathering that starts Friday.

Organizing committee chairman Firdaus HB told reporters in Padang on Wednesday that a number of participants had already arrived, not only from across the country, but also from Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.

The gathering will take place from Oct. 19 to Oct. 21.

"The event will be the right moment to revive the entrepreneurial spirit of the Minangkabau people and reinvigorate the business climate in West Sumatra," said Firdaus, adding that the meeting was particularly aimed at younger businesspeople.

"The spirit has lately rescinded, as is evident from a survey conducted jointly by the manpower ministry and students from Andalas University this year, which showed that 70 percent of respondents were more interested in becoming civil servants," said Firdaus.

The Minangkabau people are generally regarded in Indonesia as enterprising businesspeople.

Firdaus expressed hope the event could develop into a communication forum between Minang businesspeople and the establishment of a capital institution providing soft loans to small-scale businesses.

However, West Sumatra Chamber of Commerce chairman Asnawi Bahar said it was not the entrepreneurial spirit of the Minangkabau people that had died down, but the people themselves.

"There are 510,410 families in West Sumatra involved in business activities, with most of them, or 423,280, small-scale traders, 74,410 small-scale family businesses and with only 3,720 medium and large-scale family businesses," he said.

Asnawi added that many Minangkabau traders did business in other areas, such as Tanah Abang in Jakarta, where the daily cash circulation amounted to billions of rupiah, but failed to invest in their home province.

Locally, however, few traders have expanded their businesses.

"I hope a clear program will be realized during the event so as to revive the business sector in West Sumatra and not only become just a means to an end, especially for the sake of politics," said Asnawi.

The event is scheduled to be opened by Vice President Jusuf Kalla. It will feature dialogs with successful businessmen and an industrial exhibition.