Month: July 2022

State-run lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) won accolades at the 19th Banking Service Excellence Awards 2022 by ranking 1st Overall in E-Banking and 1st in Phone Banking in the national banking industry.

The awards were handed over to BNI, as it was considered to be the most successful in shifting from conventional to digital services and making a giant leap forward in the development of e-banking networks.

“BNI will continue to maximize front-end services with the support of reliable IT infrastructure. BNI also continues to expand synergies with various ecosystems to increase the interest and loyalty of the Indonesian people in (conducting) transactions,” BNI Director of Services and Networks Ronny Venir stated here on Friday.

Venir remarked that BNI is proactive in increasing service capacity and capabilities in developing digital solutions for customers.

“Customer satisfaction is BNI’s passion to always provide the best service, always be present in the customers’ life with features, convenience, and many value-added financial solutions. BNI is ready to jump higher,” he stated.

According to Venir, customers can enjoy e-banking services via the BNI Mobile Banking Super App Ecosystem.

“We are also proud that BNI Mobile Banking is also ranked 1st in the Mobile Banking Application on the Google Play Store,” Venir stated.

BNI has established partnerships with more than four thousand Application Programming Interface (API) partners, with a total of 443 services.

BNI API Open Banking is one of BNI’s champion digital service products in addition to BNI Mobile Banking, BNI Direct, and BNI Xpora.

In providing financial services in remote areas, BNI continuously enhances the branchless banking services or BNI Agen46 agents.

“The number of bank agents has reached more than 150 thousand to help reach the segment of society that has not been served by formal financial institutions. The transaction value of BNIAgen46 has reached Rp18.6 trillion,” Venir explained.

 

Source: Antara News

The government will continue to encourage university students, and youngsters in general, to take up entrepreneurship so that the number of entrepreneurs in the country rises, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has affirmed.

In an official statement released on Friday, he said he expects that intellectuals and university students can combine knowledge and skills to exploit business opportunities so that the number of entrepreneurs from universities can increase.

“For university students who wish to become entrepreneurs, the government has prepared various integrated financing schemes,” he informed.

“For beginner businessmen who have just founded a micro and small business, there are several other programs such as Super Micro KUR (People’s Business Credit), Regular KUR, and financing with commercial credit,” he added.

Moreover, collaboration between universities and the government should also be carried out in supporting the financial inclusion program, Hartarto said.

“I expect that universities can also bolster their role to not just become a place for learning, but also to encourage financial literacy among students, which certainly will become knowledge for entrepreneurship,” he remarked.

In addition, the minister also noted that the government is committed to supporting youngsters through various skill-building programs.

“The government’s support for digital skills development exists from the basic to advanced level,” he informed.

“These program supports include Pre-Employment Card, Digital Literacy National Movement, Digital Talent Scholarship, Digital Leadership Academy, and Sea Labs Academy,” he added.

This is being done to support the productive age population, which has reached more than 191 million and the majority of which belongs to Generation Z and millennial demographics.

It is also expected to optimize digitalization opportunities in various sectors.

Digital skill development is estimated to contribute Rp4,434 trillion to the GDP in 2030.

This will be a major opportunity for Indonesia’s economy and must be utilized as best as possible, Hartarto said.

Digital talents are also required to boost the number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia, he added.

 

Source: Antara News

The government, through Presidential Regulation No. 2 of 2022 on 2021–2024 national entrepreneurship development, is seeking to add one million new small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by 2024 to increase the country’s entrepreneurship ratio.

Ninety-nine percent of entrepreneurs in Indonesia run micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Cooperatives and SMEs Minister Teten Masduki noted during the “Entrepreneurship Interactive Dialogue and Public Lecture” themed “Young Entrepreneurs Wanted” here on Friday.

However, only 3.18 percent of them are in the established entrepreneurs category, he added during the program held to unveil the ministry’s cooperation with Andalas University for bolstering startup capacity.

“This is very small when compared to Singapore, which has established MSMEs that reached 8.76 percent, with the number of population at less than 5 million people,” he elaborated.

Indonesia currently has a population of 270 million, but entrepreneurs make up only 3.18 percent of it.

Meanwhile, the proportion of entrepreneurs in Malaysia and Thailand is already higher than in Indonesia at 4.74 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively.

Therefore, the government is seeking to add one million new entrepreneurs so that, by 2024, their composition rises to 3.95 percent.

“It would be great to reach 4 percent because, in order to become a developed country, the number of entrepreneurs must be 4 percent of the total population,” he informed.

In developed countries, the proportion of entrepreneurs is 10–14 percent, he added.

It is estimated that Indonesia will become the fourth largest economic power in the world after the United States, China, and India by 2045.

“To become a developed country, we have to not only prepare human resources and infrastructure, but also the business world by increasing the number of young entrepreneurs,” the minister remarked.

Therefore, Masduki’s ministry is seeking to cooperate with Andalas University in Padang, West Sumatra, because the land of Minang, an ethnic group native to West Sumatra, is known for its entrepreneurial spirit.

 

Source: Antara News

Investors and entrepreneurs from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have expressed optimism about the prospects for cooperation with Indonesia in projects, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir has informed.

After President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) met with UAE investors at a hotel in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, on Friday, Thohir said, “They are very optimistic to work together on several projects that can be synergized between the two countries.”

During the dialogue, four important topics were discussed by President Widodo and UAE investors and entrepreneurs, he added.

The first was air logistics, where Indonesia and UAE can be mutually beneficial partners amid the uncertainty in logistics and supply chains, he pointed out.

The second discussion point was the new national capital (IKN), Nusantara, where it is necessary to build a city that aligns with the rapid economic and population growth, Thohir said.

The government needs to prepare a futuristic city for residents who are currently mostly young, the SOEs Minister added.

“It is impossible that the 50 million young Indonesians to enter (to live in) old cities. Of course, with renewable technology, we must prepare a future city. The UAE itself, Abu Dhabi, is very optimistic to view this as something good because it sees other world major cities which are also the center of economic growth of each country,” he said.

Third, the meeting also discussed the development of marine tourism in the context of the blue economy.

President Widodo wants blue economic development to help protect Indonesia’s nature, not just exploit it, Thohir said.

UAE’s National Security Advisor, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan; G42 CEO Peng Xiao; Abu Dhabi Holding CEO, Mohamed Hassan Al Suwaidi; and LuLu Group executive director, Ashraf Ali, attended the meeting.

Indonesian officials who accompanied the President to the meeting were Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan; Indonesian Ambassador to UAE, Husin Bagis; head of the IKN Authority, Bambang Susantono; and head of the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), Ridha Wirakusumah.

 

Source: Antara News

The budget deficit is expected to reach Rp732.2 trillion or 3.92 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has projected.

“The budget deficit will fall more deeply than what we have projected at 4.85 percent of the GDP in the state budget and 4.5 percent of the GDP in the presidential regulation,” she said during a working meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Budget Committee in Jakarta on Friday.

Last year, the budget deficit had topped Rp775 trillion.

The projected decline in the 2022 budget deficit shows that the state budget has become relatively healthier and stronger, in accordance with the strategy of facing the volatile condition, particularly in the financial sector, due to global inflation and interest rate hike, the minister said.

The budget deficit forecast is based on the projected state expenditure of Rp3,169.1 trillion, higher than the state revenue, which is estimated to reach Rp2,436.9 trillion, she added.

Overall, the state expenditure forecast is quite good because it shows 13.7 percent year-on-year growth compared to last year.

The figure comprised Rp2,370 trillion in central government spending and Rp799.1 trillion in transfers to regions and village funds, Indrawati said.

“The state spending is aimed to give a ‘blanket’ or ‘pillow’ to protect our community from volatility,” she added.

State revenues also grew significantly by 21.2 percent year-on-year, comprising tax receipts of Rp1,924.9 trillion and non-tax state revenues of Rp510.9 trillion, she said.

 

 

Source: Antara News