Following our ongoing project with the Bangka Belitung government to strategically position its local SMEs, last Wednesday (27/11) ANGIN held a Focus Group Discussion on the Survey of Superior Commodities in Bangka Belitung. The FGD was attended by Tree Group, UNDP Indonesia, Sekolah Seniman Pangan, KEHATI, Tropical Forest Conservation Action (TFCA), Bangka Belitung government, and Zakziq, a local honey seller from Namang village, Bangka.
The FGD was led by ANGIN’s Business Development Associate, Novi Juwita, who went to Bangka Belitung for survey earlier this month with ANGIN’s Communications Manager, Sarah Soeprapto. The team was also joined by the Head of ANGIN Impact, Saskia Tjokro, and ANGIN’s Advisory Officer, Olyvia Samosir.
The main purpose of this FGD is to spark a discussion among the invitees on how to further grow Bangka Belitung’s tourism through its leading commodities: honey, pepper, and fish crackers. The FGD is another step towards our ultimate goal of developing these SMEs into sustainable businesses at the local, regional and international levels and as agents of change with an environmentally friendly perspective.
ANGIN team opened the FGD with a presentation, followed by food tasting and a discussion to understand the challenges of local SMEs and understand their current development and expansion opportunities. The invitees were enthusiastic to share their insights and contribute their knowledge to help the project. Bangka Belitung Governor, Erzaldi Rosman Djohan, shared the challenges in developing Bangka Belitung’s tourism and the state of global competition. He said that Bangka Belitung’s pepper has a higher heat level at 6-7% than peppers from Kalimantan, Makassar, or Vietnam at 2,9-3%. Samedi from TFCA also mentioned a potential collaboration in conservation business. Mita from Sekolah Seniman Pangan introduced a new tourism concept called ‘Teater Kuliner’ (Culinary Theater)’, where they tell the history of a place using theater as a medium. They also discussed the development programs that will focus on local communities, such as product knowledge training for distributors, as well as food technology training, financial literacy training, and entrepreneurship training for local farmers and workers.
ANGIN envisions collective impact approach, to serve both entrepreneurs and investors from value-chain perspective. We build cross-sector partnerships to try solving social and economic problems. With the FGD, we hope to involve and connect key players from different fields who share a common goal, which is developing local tourism SMEs in Bangka Belitung.
