Chinese-funded companies drive local SMEs in Indonesia

The Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) promotes the development of local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the number of businesses in Morowali District, Sulawesi Province, surging by 62.7% in the past five years, and rebounding to 7,643 businesses in March 2025.The IMIP is the first of its kind in Sulawesi.In 2023, the growth was significant, reaching 6,617 in February and 7,299 in August; in 2024, the growth slowed down, increasing only marginally to 7,318.The presence of the IMIP Industrial Park has given a major boost to local MSMEs, which have mushroomed, with rows and rows of kiosks, stalls, and semi-permanent store buildings becoming a bustling spectacle in the lives of the residents. The local MSME activity absorbed as many as 16,705 laborers and was dominated by grocery-cum-fuel sales (981), beverage stalls (735) and semi-permanent food and beverage stalls (670), as well as kiosks (648), restaurants (591), cell phone counters (274), and repair shops (274), as well as apparel, shoe, and protective equipment stores (263) and medium-sized kiosks (246), etc. The growth in the number of local SMEs by 14.9% in 2024 is closely related to the development of the nickel-processing industry in the IMIP Park that attracts an influx of population, some of which are new residents from outside Central Sulawesi. Indonesia's MSMEs dominate economic growth, absorbing labor and supporting GDP growth, and are the backbone of the local economy as well as an important source of support for the population's daily lives. The owner of a local restaurant, who has been operating a restaurant in the area since 2018, initially had an average business, but later, with the operation of the factory in the IMIP park in October 2024, the restaurant's business became more prosperous with more customers, and he extended the opening hours of the restaurant to 24 hours, as well as enlarged the dining area, and currently employs at least 18 people, including cooks, waiters, and food delivery staff.