President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) will launch a ‘Red and White Fund’ on December 17, 2021, to help finance local start-ups, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir has informed.
Once the fund is launched, start-ups founded in Indonesia can operate and go public in the country, he said while delivering a lecture at the Sepuluh November Institute of Technology (ITS) in Surabaya, accessed online from Jakarta on Saturday.
Many local start-ups have so far received foreign funding, the minister noted.
“Don’t blame others for Indonesian start-ups receiving foreign funding. This happened because we did not care about them at that time,” he remarked.
Earlier, Thohir said he wanted state-owned companies to intervene in the digital sector in order to nationalize startups that have received foreign financing.
He made the remark in response to reports of many Indonesian start-ups moving to Singapore and receiving funding from foreign investors.
State-owned telecommunication operator PT Telkom and digital telecommunication company PT Telkomsel will support the Red and White Fund, he said.
Source: Antara News