22 January 2016
Indonesia tops Asia-Pacific in small business performance
New survey data from CPA Australia shows Indonesia’s small businesses are significantly outperforming their
competitors in the Asia-Pacific on the key economic drivers of innovation, e-commerce and social media.
The findings, from CPA Australia’s annual Asia-Pacific Small Business Survey, follow extensive surveying of nearly
3,000 small business operators in Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and
Indonesia.
CPA Australia chief executive Alex Malley says the annual survey shows that Indonesia is unrivalled in the AsiaPacific when it comes to innovation.
“Indonesia is leading its competition in other markets in the region in innovation and is the top performer when it
comes to other future drivers of growth and job creation – exporting and e-commerce.
“Indonesia’s small business sector has had the most successful 12 months of all the Asia-Pacific markets
surveyed, with 91 per cent of respondents reporting that they grew over this period, well above the survey average
of 68 per cent.
“This very strong sentiment is expected to continue in 2016, with 93 per cent of small businesses expecting to
grow. And again, this is well above the survey average of 71 per cent across the Asia-Pacific.
“The sector’s positive outlook is translating into jobs, with two thirds of Indonesia’s small businesses increasing the
number of their employees in the past 12 months, up from 49 per cent in 2014 and well above the survey average
of 33 per cent.
“This strong performance and positive outlook is despite some challenging external factors such as slowing growth
in China, weak recoveries in the economies of the US, Japan and the Euro area and weak commodity prices,”
Malley said.
Key findings from the survey where Indonesia is outperforming its competition in the Asia-Pacific include:
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46 per cent of respondents definitely expect to innovate through the introduction of a new product, service
or process, compared with the survey average of 22 per cent
86 per cent of respondents expect to grow their e-commerce presence to a large extent, compared with the
survey average of 32 per cent
94 per cent of respondents earned revenue from online sales, compared with the survey average of 69 per
cent
The CPA Australia Asia-Pacific Small Business Survey provides annual insights into the views of small businesses
across the region and forms part of a longitudinal study that began in 2009.
Survey available at www.cpaaustralia.com.au. For a snap shot of results click here. For full report click here.
-ENDS-
Media contact: Stuart Dignam on +61434 003 911 or [email protected]