RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – Product quality and cost efficiency are no longer the sole standards in the global industry. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects must now also be taken into account. To address these challenges, the Indonesian government has officially launched two practical guidebooks to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to transition into green industries.

The Indonesian Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) hosted the launch event for the 2026 Green SME Empowerment Program, which was officially inaugurated by the Director General of Small, Medium, and Diversified Industries at the Ministry of Industry, Reni Yanita, in Jakarta on Thursday, July 23, 2026. In her remarks, Yanita emphasized the importance of adapting to climate change and meeting global market demands by releasing two technical guidebooks valid through 2029.

“Today, we are launching the Pocket Guide to Green SME Transformation Activities as a practical guide for implementing green initiatives among SMEs in Indonesia. We are also launching the Green SME Empowerment Program Handbook, which covers the background, target indicators, and implementation stages of the SME empowerment program,” Yanita said.

The Ministry of Industry’s strategic move to publish these guidebooks received high praise from the Financial Services Authority (OJK). Head of the Department of Surveillance and Financial Services Sector Policy at the OJK, Agus Firmansyah, noted that global business competition increasingly demands a strong commitment to ESG principles.

Agus stated, “More and more countries, investors, and global companies are paying attention to how a product is produced, its environmental impact, and how the business is managed. In other words, sustainability has evolved from being merely an added value to becoming a key factor that determines a business’s competitiveness.”

Yanita explained that although green industry regulations are already enshrined in law and the Indonesian Sustainable Finance Taxonomy (TKBI), the diverse SME sector still requires practical technical guidance to put these policies into practice. As a concrete step, the Indonesian government will conduct outreach sessions and an intensive selection process to choose 35 SMEs to receive specialized mentoring for their green transition.

“We have a two-phase program following this. The first phase will take around three to four months, after which 35 SMEs will be selected. In the second phase, we will provide guidance to help them execute the activities required to implement this green transformation,” Yanita explained.