Ruangguru denies receiving US$256M from pre-employment card programme

Indonesian edutech startup Ruangguru has dismissed reports that it had received US$256 million from the government-run Pre-employment Card Programme.

“Ruangguru is in no way receiving US$256 million from the programme. The fund received by the digital partner depends solely on the choices of the participants that are free to choose any training class from eight official partners in the pre-employment card’s digital platform,” the company said in a statement.

“All participants of the programme hold full control in using the fund they receive to choose class or programme available provided by these official partners. There is no payment of any form related to Pre-employment card received by Ruangguru’s Skill Academy as of now,” read the statement.

Also Read: [Updated] Indonesian edutech startup Ruangguru confirms US$150M Series C funding round

It further added that as for the selection process of the service providers for the pre-employment card, Ruangguru has gone through a verification process according to Permenko law Number 3, 2020.

Furthermore, as revealed by Indonesia’s Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani on May 6, 2020, the government did not welcome any tender for the platform because there are no provided goods and services paid to digital companies who are partners, it said.

The purchase is done to content providers varied based on the pre-employment card’s participants’ choice. The tender was only taken place if there is only one partner selected, while pre-employment card programme is open for more than one partner, the statement said.

Ruangguru also noted that its CEO Belva Devara has no relation whatsoever in the selection process of Ruangguru’s Skill Academy as one of the providers for Pre-employment card training.

Fore Coffee denies shutdown rumours

Online coffee chain Fore Coffee has dismissed rumours that it is shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an official statement, the company said it is still open for businesses and continue to provide services to its customers by offering a variety of new menus.

CEO Elisa Suteja said Fore Coffee has carried out several initiatives to adapt to the changing business situations in response to the pandemic, which include optimising offline store services.

Some steps that have been carried out and planned are the temporary closure of several stores during Ramadan, merging some store locations for efficiency, and upgrading internal systems to improve online sales services.

“We will continue to operate as usual. We closed several outlets and in the process of selling assets related to these locations. Information circulating that Fore Coffee closes permanently in all locations is incorrect,” Suteja insisted.

This week, Fore Coffee also launched the Barista Delivery service via its app. “For every delivery order less than 2 kilometers from the nearest Fore Coffee outlet, it will be delivered directly by Barista for added assurance of hygiene,” Suteja added.

Indonesia government to launch US$43B economic recovery stimulus

The Indonesian government is reportedly rolling out an IDR 641.17 trillion (or US$43 billion) economic recovery stimulus, which is bigger than previous allocations, in a bid to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as well as state-owned enterprises (SOEs), The Jakarta Post has reported.

The Finance Minister Mulyani Indrawati said the National Economic Recovery programme would include a strengthened social safety net, tax incentives, capital injections into SOEs, and interest rate subsidies for MSMEs, among other measures.

In doing so, the government is to re-revise the 2020 state budget to accommodate the stimulus as it expects the budget deficit to further increase to 6.27 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

In addition to that, the government is planning a US$10 million bailout for 12 SOEs including electricity firm PLN, oil company Pertamina, and flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, in a form of cash compensation and working capital investments, to reduce the impact of the virus crisis.

Cybersecurity needs improvement amid the e-commerce platforms breach, says Indonesia Minister

Indonesia’s Communication and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate has raised awareness for digital companies to improve their cybersecurity systems following a recent breach of users’ data on several of Indonesia’s largest e-commerce platforms, The Jakarta Post has reported.

On Friday, the minister revealed that Indonesia’s digital economy was ‘under attack’, in which an immediate action on cybersecurity measures improvement must take place. “I’m asking all companies to maintain their security systems to protect their applications and overall business,” he said.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Bukalapak denies reports of user data breach

The comments came after the reports of data breach of e-commerce unicorn Tokopedia back surfaced in March. As per reports, personal information of about 90 million users were compromised, and these details were put up for sale on the dark web for US$5,000 by a member of the data-exchange platform Raid Forums.

Plate added the ministry’s action would include expediting the digitisation of Indonesia’s 64 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to tap into the pandemic’s online boom.

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Picture Credit: Fore Coffe

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