On July 21 2011, as part of the first Regional Entrepreneurship Summit (RES) in Bali hosted by Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade, the largest ever Indonesian Entrepreneur Networking event was hosted by our MEKAR and supported by the U.S. Government sponsored GEPI (Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia) in Sampoerna Strategic Square Jakarta.

MEKAR (meaning “Expansional Growth”) is an initiative of the Putera Sampoerna Foundation focused on matching start up and early stage Entrepreneurs to Angel Investor financing.  MEKAR has been in operation since January 2011, and has already registered over 1600 entrepreneurs and over 200 Angel Investors which has successfully resulted in several Entrepreneurs being matched to Angel Investor financing.  Read more

On July 23rd, in Bali, our Ministry of Trade will host a regional summit on entrepreneurial development which will bring to the fore the important contribution that entrepreneurs make to the creation of jobs in any economy – developed or emerging. I welcome this event and am fully supportive of it.

Despite unprecedented recent economic growth in several emerging and frontier markets, the developing world still faces high levels of youth unemployment, underemployment and a shortage of opportunities for young people … especially, young women. While the situation varies significantly by country, the developing world as a whole has experienced the world’s highest rate of population growth over the past fifty years. Read more