Title:
Indonesia's 'Technopreneurs' Help Fuel Economic
Growth
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
Indonesia has one of the world's fastest growing
economies, expanding at a rate of six percent this
year. Technology is helping fuel that growth, and
producing a new generation of young entrepreneurs.
One of these "technopreneurs" is Nadiem Makarim. He
graduated from the Harvard Business School in
Boston, Massachusetts. He returned home and launched
Go-Jek. This service connects motorcycle taxis,
called ojeks, with people who need a ride or a
delivery. Go-Jek uses online maps, mobile phones and
a call center. The aim is to improve Jakarta's
disorganized motorcycle taxi system. Nadiem Makarim
says everything depends on a business plan. "I
firmly believe that business and just straight up
rational business growth, profitable business growth
and social impact are not mutually exclusive." Go-Jek
recently won ten thousand dollars in a competition
through the American State Department's Global
Entrepreneurship Program. Indonesia is one of five
countries in this program which links startup
businesses with investors. Many startups are
Internet-based services. Indonesia already has more
than seven hundred startups online, and new ones are
launched every week. Half of Indonesians still live
on less than two dollars a day. But Indonesia has a
young population interested in trying new
technology.Right now, about forty-five million
Indonesians, or only about one in five, use the
Internet. But about half of those people use mobile
devices to go online, and those numbers are only
growing. Some experts say the conditions for local
entrepreneurs are the best in the world. Still, the
World Bank currently ranks Indonesia one hundred
twenty-first out of one hundred eighty-three
economies in ease of doing business.The biggest
barrier to entrepreneurs is a lack of financing.
Also, economists say Indonesia needs more
entrepreneurs. They now make up less than one
percent of the workforce. The rate is over seven
percent in nearby Singapore, and almost twelve
percent in the United States.Indonesia's biggest
bank, Bank Mandiri, expects to increase loans by as
much as twenty-five percent this year. Demand is
growing for credit for small businesses and for
consumers. Leonard Theosabrata helped start
Whiteboard Journal. This online publication offers a
place for young designers to show their products. He
says Indonesia has a lot of opportunity for
entrepreneurs willing to take a risk.For VOA Special
English, I'm Carolyn Presutti.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
