Strategy in Enhancing the Competitiveness of Small and Medium Enterprises in ASEAN Free Trade Era

The existence of entrepreneurs in Indonesia is still incapable to triggering the emergence of the need for planning the systematic, simultaneous, comprehensive development program which has an orientation to the small scale of an entrepreneur. Studies about entrepreneurs have so wide scope comprising of skill problem, education level, family background, civilization, and personality. This study was done to examine the various factors encouraging the community who grows as entrepreneurs. This research was conducted in the central industry of bag and suitcase located in the sub-district Tanggulangin-Sidoarjo district. Determination of this location was specified by purposive. Observation, documentation, and interview were applied to collect the data. This report was also prepared based on study literature point of view which referred to some books and scientific journals. Therefore, all of the ideas were compiled into one framework thought. The results show that there have been high efforts supported by the government for entrepreneurs in Indonesia, such as facilitation, capital access, legality, and training about standardization of Indonesian national product. To encourage the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises in the global market, the more effective strategy is needed, especially on the improvement of the quality of the human resources and market access by applying for information technology advances.