Jakarta. The recently launched Sarinah Duty Free store in Jakarta is expected to help pave the way for local businesses to go global, according to State Owned Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir.

The store is a collaboration of Sarinah, arguably the country's oldest shopping mall located on Jalan Thamrin, and duty-free retail operator Dufry with an aim of providing an upscale showroom for products from Indonesian SMEs.

“Sarinah provides a stage for Indonesia to showcase its local products, local brands, and supporting our small and medium enterprises [SMEs], and it becomes a destination for international and local tourists,” Erick said at the store's grand launching ceremony at Sarinah Mall in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Being one of the SOE Ministry projects, Sarinah aims to accommodate the trade of local goods and boost Indonesia's economic growth.

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Erick also mentioned that the mission since the first time the collaboration started has always been to create mutually beneficial cooperation. 

“We have a clear mission, to elevate the partnerships between Dufry and Sarinah to create win-win cooperation because Indonesia is a big market, but we need Dufry to support some of Indonesia’s products and brands globally. This is what we’ve agreed since day one,” Erick said.

“This definitely aligns with the government’s target following the relaxation of Covid-19 travel restrictions to attract more and more tourists to Indonesia,” Erick said.

The plan to introduce local products globally does not end there as well. Further plan Erick has with this collaboration is to expand the range of local brands through Dufry globally. According to Sarinah president director Fetty Kwartati, ‘Indonesian Corner’ will appear in Duty-Free stores across the globe in the future, starting with neighboring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.

“For the Indonesian corner, we are just about to start. So the plan is, it will appear in nearby countries such as Malaysia and Singapore before we expand to countries like the Netherlands, Germany, or England.” Fetty said.

Located on the fifth floor, Sarinah Duty-Free has various products on display with collaborations from multiple SMEs. Some products in stores include chocolate, coffee, fashion, liquors, and even cigarettes. These SMEs are hand-picked through a selection process to ensure the quality of the product is up for competition in the global market.

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