Primeskills VR-Based Startup Comes to 2020 National Retail Day

Primeskills (primeskills.id), an Indonesian startup based on Virtual Reality (VR) under the venture capital company UMG IdeaLab, was present at the 2020 National Retail Day event organized by the Ministry of Trade.

Opened by the Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto in an offline and online event in Jakarta (25/11), Primeskills is here as a provider of VR-based technology solutions for digital booths. Even though the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on Indonesia’s macro-economy, Agus said the contribution of the retail business to economic growth remains high in the third quarter of 2020.

“If you look at its contribution to the gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2020, the contribution of retail from the trade side was recorded at 12.83 percent and from the consumption side 57.31 percent,” said Trade Minister Agus at a webinar held by the Indonesian Retail Entrepreneurs Association (Aprindo).

Realizing this, according to Trade Minister Agus, the government continues to strive to ensure the performance of the retail business continues to grow amid this pandemic by providing economic stimulus for the national retail sector.

“The presence of Primeskills, together with our partner VirtuInc.id at the first National Retail Day event in Indonesia can bring Indonesian MSMEs to industry 4.0 which in the future is expected to be the backbone of technology that helps the national economy,” said William Irawan, CEO of Primeskills.

UMG IdeaLab Reveals the Importance of VR-based Technology for Economic Progress

Kiwi Aliwarga, Managing Partner and co-founder of UMG IdeaLab, emphasized the importance of integrating VR-based technology with the activities of national retailers to improve Indonesia’s economy in 2021.

“The presence of industry-based technology players 4.0 through various startups will play an important role in helping the national retail industry through synergy and collaboration in the future,” said Kiwi in his press release.

According to Minister Agus, the trade sector always contributes more than 10 percent to GDP, while consumption always contributes more than 50 percent to GDP, said Trade Minister Agus.

He also emphasized the importance of digital transformation in the retail sector given the increasing online shopping behavior of the Indonesian people along with advances in digital technology in Indonesia. “Electronic commerce, which is one of the strategies for handling Covid-19, can be used to maintain performance and develop business in the retail sector,” said Trade Minister Agus.

Operating in Indonesia since 2016 as a venture capital company (Corporate Venture Capital / CVC), UMG Idealab has invested in six startup companies by 2020, including three startups engaged in the technology industry, one SME startup, and two others for venture builders.

Inviting Teachers to Prepare Human Resources to Become Entrepreneurs

William Irawan, CEO of Primeskills.id, invites teachers to prepare their students to become “HR ready to work as entrepreneurs” by building startups that can respond to the needs of the community in the economic, health care or agricultural areas where they live.

AiCI Director, Baiq Hana Susanti, appreciates and welcomes the initiative of the Directorate of Mitras DUDI for vocational training and emphasizes the importance of artificial intelligence as a curriculum for students from elementary to upper-middle level as a baseline for the preparation of competent, reliable national human resources as entrepreneurs and professionals to develop Indonesia.

“AI technology is very useful for education because now many vocational students can make software. AI technology will help them complete their tasks such as software engineering and others,” said Sinco Firdaus, a teacher at SMKN 2 Banjarmasin.

Firdaus hopes that the government will implement an AI-based national curriculum because in the future almost all lines of life in society will be connected to artificial intelligence-based robotic technology.

In line with Firdaus, a teacher at SMKN 4 Bengkulu, Yeni Palupi, hopes that the government – in collaboration with institutions such as AICI and others – can find solutions for public SMKs to obtain funds for research and project-based school activities with their students.