W

ith only half of Indonesians having access to banking services, the National Banks Association (Perbanas) is working with partners to drive a discourse toward a national strategy on financial inclusion.

In cooperation with the Indonesian Sharia Banks Association (Asbisindo) and the central bank (Bank Indonesia), Perbanas hopes to promote the concept of financial inclusion at the second Indonesia Banking Expo (IBEX), a five-day event that begins today at the Jakarta Convention Center.

“Financial inclusion is a relatively new concept, yet an important one, because there are approximately more than 120 million people who have no access to banking services,” Perbanas chairman Sigit Pramono told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.

Heralding the theme “Banking’s role in the development of creative industry and financial inclusion”, the expo would present seminars, workshops and trainings on the topic, Sigit said.

Bank Mandiri’s deputy president director, Riswinandi, who also chaired the IBEX steering committee, said the creative industry was one of the industrial sectors with strong growth potential, but was relatively untouched by bank financing.

“Many banks don’t understand how the creative industry works. That is something we have to work on, so that we may better understand their underlying concepts and their products,” he said.

In conjunction with the expo, Perbanas and Bank Indonesia (BI) will jointly host the first-ever ASEAN Conference on Financial Inclusion on Wednesday and Thursday.

BI’s banking regulatory and research director, Filianingsih, said the conference would facilitate discussions among banking and financial institutions from 15 countries in and around Southeast Asia to enhance a national strategy on financial inclusion.

Indonesian Vice President Boediono is slated to officially open the exhibition on Wednesday. He is also expected to inaugurate the so-called Rabu Program; Rabu means Wednesday in Bahasa Indonesia but is also an abbreviation for rajin menabung, or to save diligently.

The program entails measures to encourage students around the country to save every first Wednesday of the month with the help of mobile banking services provided by state banks to schools.

The government hopes the new program will strengthen the TabunganKu (MySavings) program that was first launched in 2010 as part of an initiative toward financial inclusion. TabunganKu allows potential bank customers to open an account with a low initial deposit and no monthly administrative costs that are usually slapped on conventional bank accounts in the country.

The program had generated over Rp 2.75 trillion (US$291.4 million) in savings in 2.5 million accounts as of June this year, according to Filianingsih.

All these initiatives are expected to increase the country’s savings to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio which, at 36.9 percent, is currently among the lowest in the world. (han)