Millennial Basecamp: A Program To Encourage Indonesian Youth To Build Startups

Yayasan Bina Insan Gemilang Indonesia or BIG Indonesia launched the Millennial Basecamp or Youth Empowerment Center. This program aims to develop the abilities of Indonesian youth in the startup field. BIG Indonesia collaborates with some ministries and agencies for this case.

Ministry of Youth and Sports (Kemenpora), Ministry of Research and Technology (Kemenristek), BPPOM, Indonesian Chancellors’ Forum, Indonesian Lecturers Association, Indonesian Modern Market Suppliers Association (AP3MI), Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association (APRINDO), PT Kinanti Utama Karya, the Indonesian Muslim Merchants Association (ISMI) are some of the parties that collaborate for the program.

Besides, Alphabet Incubator and several other youth communities also join the collaboration. “Our task is to develop,” Kemenristek Director of the technology-Based Startups (PPBT), Retno Sumekar said at the Big Indonesia Foundation office on Kuningan, South Jakarta some time ago.

She then added “Later at the base camp, those who have an idea could learn how to be a startup until it comes true. Then, they can’t stop there. (After that), their revenue must increase. They need to move up their class.”

Millennial Basecamp Is Open to Any Young People in Indonesia

Retno explained briefly how this program works. Later, young people who are interested in the startup world would get their idea accommodated and developed. As a result, they can enter the retail world. “So, someone started the idea. Then, we accommodated it here and incubated it,” she said.

She said that being incubated here means that the young people would be taught about business from the very beginning. Next, they would be accelerated so that they can move to another level or class. “They can enter the retail market and so on,” Retno added.

According to her the target of this program is Indonesian youth from the age of 18 to 40 years, especially those who want to enter the startup world. “There are students, vocational high school graduates, or even children who have not graduated from school.”

She emphasized that any young people could join the program regardless of their educational background. As long as they have an idea and a desire to develop a startup, they can join the program. And they don’t need to hesitate because everything will be taught here.

Other Programs Have Been Created to Support Startup Businesses Too

Meanwhile, the government of Indonesia through Kemenristek has also been active in developing startups in the country. There have been a lot of ways taken by Kemenristek to help grow startups in Indonesia. Kemenristek even developed innovation that is based on researches.

In 2020 there will be 10 startup products that will be partnered with the industrial sector including those engaged in the electricity and food sectors. Director of Research and Technology from Kemenristek, Kemal Prihatman said that the acceleration efforts taken so far are to increase information technology access.

Moreover, it is also done to advance the use of resources and good corporate governance from upstream to downstream. He considered the acceleration program could encourage innovation products produced by startups that can ultimately increase Indonesia’s competitiveness in the international arena.

Despite being optimistic about the growth of startups in Indonesia, Kemenristek found that there are some obstacles that startups may face to survive and become a unicorn such as something related to human resources. Strong research and development activities are necessary for this case.

“Human resources, especially in the field of ICT (information technology and telecommunications) are necessary,” the Minister of Research and Technology said some time ago. Therefore, the government had to support it by developing the country’s development system related to this problem.

As a result, Indonesia won’t depend on external experts only. However, it can slowly be substituted by domestic experts. Another obstacle faced by Indonesian startups is related to funding and regulation. “We (the government) must ensure that everything can work together in harmony,” he concluded.