Bank Mandiri continues to realize its commitment to promoting the development of resilient entrepreneurs and thereby boost the country's economy. After encouraging entrepreneurship in the universities, Bank Mandiri has staged an entrepreneurial workshop for more than 500 students from 28 Islamic boarding school (pesantren) on the island of Lombok.

Bank Mandiri Director of Finance & Strategy Pahala N. Mansury said that the presence of the pesantren in the midst of the community had a strategic role to play in the development of economic centers that could help improve people’s living standards. The emergence of such centers could also help spur growth in surrounding communities.

“Pesantren have had their roots deep in the community since the outset. This provides a strength that could help people improve their lives. Through this program, we want to enhance the skills of pesantren students in Lombok and provide them with a sense of business so as to help bring their entrepreneurship potential to the fore,” explained Pahala N. Mansury. 

During the workshop, the Bank presented film director Irfan Wahid, entrepreneur Aunur Rofiq, winner of the 2007 Mandiri Young Entrepreneur (WMM) competition, Saptuari Sugiharto, and 2011 WMM Finalist Abdul Azis to share their experiences and pass on entrepreneurship tips.

The Palembang workshop was one of a series being staged as part of Bank Mandiri’s “WMM Goes to Pesantren” program. To date, similar workshops have been held at pesantren in Martapura, the Asrama Perguruan Islam pesantren in Tegalrejo, Magelang, the Manonjaya pesantren in Tasikmalaya, and the Qodratulloh pesantren in Palembang.

The Mandiri Young Entrepreneur program is an expression of Bank Mandiri’s concern and support for entrepreneurship among students, with young entrepreneurial talent being sought out through the use of an entrepreneurship module in state and private higher education institutes, the provision of entrepreneurship scholarships, and the holding of workshops and presentations. Meanwhile, small businesses are assisted through entrepreneurship education, monitoring and promotion. 

The Mandiri Young Entrepreneur program has proved itself an outstanding success, and capable of changing the way students think about entrepreneurship. In addition, it has made the micro-, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector attractive to students, and helped increase the number and quality of small businesses. The program has also helped strengthen the role played by the banking industry in energizing the MSME sector and turning it into one of the prime movers of the national economy. In fact, respected international institution Enterprise Asia has recognized the Mandiri CSR program as the best in Asia in the Investment in People category.

Complementing the Mandiri Young Entrepreneur program is the Mandiri Young Technopreneur Awards, which are intended to encourage young Indonesians to harness their creativity so as to come up with new inventions and discoveries, and thereby help develop the nation.

Besides holding an entrepreneurship workshop, Bank Mandiri also availed of the opportunity to present donations worth Rp 775 million to 27 pesantren on Lombok island, with each institution receiving Rp 25 million to be used to help with the procurement of computers, library books and other educational aids.

In the case of the Qamarul Huda Bagu Pesantren, the bank presented assistance worth Rp 100 million to help improve the school’s facilities. We hope that our modest assistance will help the beneficiary schools to upgrade their infrastructure and their students to deepen their studies and religious devotions.