Mandiri, Bulog sign agreement on online transaction services

Bank Mandiri and State Logistics Agency (Bulog) signed Thursday an agreement for the nation's largest lender to provide online transaction services for the agency to ease its operational work to provide sufficient food stocks to the country, especially rice.

Fransisca Nelwan Mok, Mandiri's director of corporate banking, said that through the online services' host-to-host system, Bulog would obtain transaction information with its 4,500 partners real time through Mandiri's branches, she added.

“We hope that the host-to-host system will make Bulog's operational needs more efficient, especially in the management of rice, which has been the staple food of most Indonesians,” Fransisca said in a statement sent to reporters on Thursday.

Bulog's finance director Iskandar Z. Rangkuti said the online transaction services from Mandiri would ease the agency's work to achieve its main mission to manage prices and distribute food materials especially rice throughout Indonesia.

“With the network support and technology of Bank Mandiri, we hope the cooperation could be the right financial solution to increase Bulog's performance,” Iskandar said.

In support of providing sufficient rice supply for the country, Bank Mandiri, the nation's largest bank by assets, has disbursed Rp 1.5 trillion loans in 2010 for State Logistics Agency (Bulog), the lender said in the statement.