At the moment, LSM PILAR is running a business development project in furniture. Following is the brief description of this project.

      LSM PILAR’S BDS VISION

Through its BDS, LSM PILAR envisions the establishment of strong and prosperous furniture business centers and the emergence of socially responsible furniture enterprises in Batang, Central Java, Indonesia.

ITS MISSION 

To realize its vision, LSM Pilar:

A.    Sets up Furniture Business Development Services in Central Java, Indonesia.

B.   Gives advocacy to furniture enterprises in developing their furniture businesses through providing trainings in quality improvement and business management, and helping the enterprises find accesses to both local and export markets.

C.    Works with other organizations or institutions as an effort of providing capital loans to the enterprises.

D.    Makes sure that the furniture enterprises pay fair wages to their labors. 

      PARTNERS 

Right now, as we have just started, we give advocacy to 40 small-scale and medium-scale furniture businesses, which employ 200 workers. Our Furniture BDS Project is mainly located in Batang, Central Java, Indonesia.  We plan to reach more enterprises and more locations in 2005. 

We realize that we cannot work alone to accomplish those vision and missions. We also believe that working with other organizations or institutions helps us fulfill our vision and missions effectively and efficiently, and makes us able to give our best advocacy services to the furniture businesses in Central Java. 

Consequently, we work with other organizations or institutions, particularly with the Indonesian State Ministry of Cooperation and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (Menneg Koperasi dan PKM); the Central Java Department of Cooperation and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (Dinas Pelayanan Koperasi dan UKM Jateng); the Office of Cooperation and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Batang, Central Java; Mitra Sejahtera (a Cooperation in Subah, Batang, Central Java); the Faculty of Economy of Pekalongan University; Satya Mandala (a handicraft BDS in Blora, Central Java) and CV. Rio (a furniture export company in Boyolali, Central Java).

The following table describes the roles of each partner and their specific contributions to our Furniture BDS Program. 

LSM PILAR BDS ACTIVITIES AND FUNDING 

A.    What LSM Pilar has done: 

Followings are the activities of LSM Pilar related to Furniture BDS Program that have been done since 2003.   

1. Program Socialization 

a.  Socializing our furniture BDS program to furniture enterprises in Batang, Central Java. 

b.   Socializing the loans from the Indonesian State Ministry of Cooperation and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to our furniture BDS members. 

c.  Coordinating with our partners as to how the loan would be distributed, managed and evaluated. 

2. Marketing 

a.  Encouraging and facilitating our furniture BDS members to participate in Batang Expo 2003, a fair for handicraft and furniture producers in Batang, Central Java. 

d.   Promoting the products of our furniture BDS members to the school committees of SMP 3 Wonotunggal and elementary schools in the district of Batang, Batang Regency, Central Java. We reached the business deal and were able to sell the products of our furniture BDS members.  We supplied 90% of furniture needed by elementary schools in the district of Batang (Kecamatan Batang), in Batang Regency, Central Java. 

b.   Promoting and selling the products of our furniture BDS members to the Office of Cooperation and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Batang, Central Java. 

c.  Promoting and selling the products of our furniture BDS members to local furniture stores. 

3. Quality Improvement and Business Management 

a.   In May 2004, our furniture BDS members visited CV. Rio in Boyolali and Furniture Center in Serenan, Juwiring, in Klaten, Central Java for a field study in quality improvement and export market penetration strategies.

b.   In June 2004, together with the Office of Cooperation and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Batang, the Faculty of Economy of Pekalongan University, and CV. Rio; we trained our furniture BDS members with skills useful for improving their product quality and managing their businesses professionally.  

c.    In July 2004, together with BDS Satya Mandala in Blora and CV. Rio in Boyolali--both are in Central Java, we organized a field study and training in quality improvement and management for furniture export purposes. 

d.   In August 2004, we organized a field study for our furniture BDS member to furniture centers in Cirebon, West Java to learn furniture production management.   

B.     What LSM Pilar will do: 

Followings are our plans of activities that we will do in 2005: 

1.      Improving the capacity of our BDS in the area of micro loan management. We will work with the Central Java Task Force for Bank’s Partner Financial Consultant (Satgas Konsultan Keuangan Mitra Bank Jateng) in providing micro loan management training for our BDS staff. 

2.      Finding oversea buyers as an effort of expanding our furniture BDS market. 

3.      Expanding our products to handicrafts. We will be working with BDS Satya Mandala in Blora, Central Java. 

4.      Reaching out other small and medium scale furniture enterprises in Batang and other regions in Central Java. 

5.      Setting up a showroom for our BDS’ furniture products. 

6.     Improving our BDS furniture production capacities through providing modern machineries for our BDS’ furniture productions. 

7.     Working with the local authority which supplies legal woods, we supply legal woods needed for our BDS’ furniture productions.   

C.    Funding For Our BDS Activities 

1.      Our Current Funding 

Our main funding for this Furniture BDS comes from the Indonesian State Ministry of Cooperation and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.  From the ministry, we received Rp. 250 millions as a loan to our BDS members--furniture enterprises. We also received a block grant from the ministry as much as Rp. 50 millions for funding our advocacy and BDS management activities/programs, including for funding the services provided by our partners. 

                                         The total funding--Rp. 300 millions, is for the total project which has the duration of 3 years. 

2.      Our Financial Needs 

Due to our plans for 2005, we are in need of funding for these activities: 

a.   Expanding our products to handicrafts. We will be working with BDS Satya Mandala in Blora, Central Java. 

b.   Reaching out other small and medium scale furniture enterprises in Batang and other regions in Central Java. 

c.    Setting up a showroom for our BDS’ furniture products. 

d.   Improving our BDS furniture production capacities through providing modern machineries for our BDS’ furniture productions. 

e.    Working with the local authority which supplies legal woods, we supply legal woods needed for our BDS’ furniture productions.   

    IMMEDIATE RESULTS

In 9 months, that is since October 2003, generally we have been able to help our BDS members increase their income up to 10%-20% monthly. 

CONCLUSION 

We believe that the advocacy which we give to the local people of Batang, particularly to the small and medium furniture enterprises, have been a great help for them. We also have seen that our Furniture BDS Program has empowered the economy of the local people and provided them with knowledge and skills necessary for having a sustainable business through which the people achieve a better and sustainable income. Therefore, it is worth to continue this program despite financial challenges.

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