Economic progress is one of the
characteristics of a developed and prosperous nation. Developed countries
generally have a more entrepreneurial than the developing countries. Economic
progress is obtained if there is a strong entrepreneurial spirit of the nation.
It is ideal if a nation has 10% of people who are entrepreneurial, as they will
be the economic powerhouse of the nation. Economic progress not only directly
improve the welfare of the nation, but also can promote the progress of other
aspects of national life such as political, social, cultural, technological and
so on. For example, the United States known as the developed countries appears
to have entrepreneurial 15.5% of the total population. Another example in
countries of Southeast Asia Singapore is a country that has an entrepreneurial as
much as 7.2% of the total population. So naturally, the economic development in
the state of Singapore is much better compared to other countries in ASEAN
Indonesia is a country with natural
resources are very abundant to promote economic progress of the nation such as
farming, fishing, agriculture and mining. In addition, the condition of arable
land is the capital and its own power for Indonesian nation to becoming a
nation that has economic progress. Indonesia also has a high human resources,
number of ranks fourth in the world, of which 27% are youth who are important
actors for the growth and development of innovative and creative culture. Youth
has a strategic role for the growth and progress of the nation of Indonesia
because they have high productivity in the community to work, create and
innovate. Every year universities in Indonesia pass students, which means that
thousands of research results produced by Indonesian youth.
But unfortunately from the many
potential of Indonesia to have an advanced economy, it turns out
entrepreneurial activity is still very low, there are only about 0.81% of
entrepreneurs. It is shown that the number of individuals active in starting a
new business if expressed in percent of the total active population works is
still relatively low. This situation resulted in the unemployment rate so high
that the number of poor people is also high. In 2006 the unemployment rate reached
10.8% -11% range of the workforce are categorized as unemployed, and the number
of poor people reached 39.5 million people, or 17.75% of the total population
of 222 million people (of Higher Education, 2009) . Based on data from BPS in
2011, unemployment rate in August as much as 6.56% (Higher Education, 2012).
This figure has not been coupled with the number of workers who are not full
(underemployed and working part-time) which reached 34.59% of the total labor
force. The unemployment rate for college graduates by 7, 16% (diploma) and
8.02% (Bachelor) (Higher Education, 2012).
One cause of low entrepreneurial
activity are college graduates who have the ability and scientific fact higher,
still more that act as job seekers (job seekers) as the creator of the job (job
creators). This might be due to a learning system that is applied in various
universities in Indonesia is more focused on how to prepare the students who
graduate and get a job faster than on creating graduates who are ready to
create jobs. This low level of entrepreneurial activity can lead to high levels
of unemployment because there is no expansion of business activities. In Higher
Education, activities in the field of entrepreneurship development is still
limited and focused on the economic and social aspects of management in the
form of lectures or training.
Entrepreneurial activity becomes
more important for the Indonesian nation after the announcement of the era of
the Asean Economic Community in the ASEAN summit held in Phnom Penh in November
2012. In the immediate conversion reaffirm the implementation of ASEAN economic
integration will be executed no later than the end of 2015. With the MEA, will
bring major consequences for the national economy. Without proper preparation,
post-MEA Indonesia feared would just be spectators in their own country. To
prevent that, then Indonesia should have a more solid preparation to face the
MEA, the entrepreneur must be more diligent, hard work and tough to face the
competition.
