Thuggery Hindering Growth Of Small Businesses

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The rise in criminal activities in Indonesia has reached such an extent that even small businessmen are complaining that their businesses have been squeezed by the activities of thugs.

"We have received a lot of complaints from our members who are generally micro, small and medium businessmen about the activities of the thugs," the Secretary General of the Executive Board of the Association of Indonesian Young Businessmen (HIPMI), Harry Warganegara Harun, said in Jakarta on Monday.

He emphasized that the police must not only take immediate action against them, but should also eradicate them.

Harun noted that micro, small and medium businesses have indeed been under thug-alert conditions, but they have so far kept silent or sought backing from security agencies with an additional cost to protect their businesses.

He said small businessmen had been squeezed at all levels.  The businessmen have to pay soon after "goods leave factories or production centers and are on the way to marketplaces".(IGT)