The Development of Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the Role of Digital Ecosystems During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been the backbone of Indonesia's economy for over 100 years. There is nearly 64-million-unit business, with 98% of the market share belonging to the micro-business and 52% categorized as informal. Despite the uncertainty created by the prolonged crisis, a path of recovery is happening in the SME sector. Continuous effort to support SMEs has been planned include mapping out a cluster program. This chapter illustrates challenges and types of resilience and cluster issues facing SMEs that need to be resolved to prepare SMEs for recovery, and one of them is information technology. For many businesses, including SMEs, participation in the digital economy is the key to greater resiliency. The development of SMEs in Indonesia is an interesting topic with an actual illustration of the recent trends of Asian countries' economies and businesses in the current COVID-19 pandemic.