Bank Mandiri Director of Finance & Strategy, Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, said that the annual competition provides a vehicle for identifying entrepreneurial potential that can eventually contribute to Indonesia’s development.
"Our competition is also intended to spread the 'virus' of entrepreneurship and innovation among students and alumni so as to bring more young entrepreneurs to the fore," said Kartika.
In its 2015 vision and mission statement, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs stressed that the ratio of entrepreneurs to total population in Indonesia stands at only 1.65%, still below the ideal ratio of 2% required for a country to be categorised as “developed”. Consequently, the Ministry is targeting the creation of at least 50,000 new entrepreneurs to achieve its target over the next five years. For the 2015 to 2019 period, the government has set a target of producing one million new entrepreneurs.
Kartika said that since the first iteration of WMM was held in 2007, the competition had helped produce hundreds of young entrepreneurs who had the potential to provide significant employment.
WMM 2015 will see the contestants go head to head in five categories -- industry, trade and services, catering, creative industries, technology and social entrepreneurship.
The winner will receive a prize of Rp50 million while the runner-up will get Rp40 million. The winners and all of the other finalists will also get the chance to participate in a wide range of marketing opportunities at both the local and international levels.
"This year, we are working together with Microsoft, where the finalists in the digital category will go straight through as the Indonesian semifinalists to the Microsoft Imagine Cup at the international level," said Kartika.
Interested?
Register online. Registration ends 31 December 2015. The assessment phase takes place at the regional level in February 2016, while judging at the national level and announcement of the winners takes place in March.
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