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tate-owned telecommunication firm PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) expects to see a bigger contribution from its remittance and e-money business in the near future as the company enjoys a growing market in the two business lines.

Telkom'€™s subsidiary, PT Finnet Indonesia, which provides an electronic payment system, foresees that the two business lines will contribute around 30 percent of its total revenue in the next five years, a surge from only 10 percent today.

'€œWe'€™re upbeat that within the next five years, the composition of our revenue contributors will be 30 percent from remittances and our e-money business, and 70 percent from our billing payment system business,'€ Finnet president director Otong Iip said on Monday.

The billing payment business made up 90 percent of Finnet'€™s annual revenues of around Rp 500 billion (US$41.1 million), he said.

Telkom enterprise and business service director Muhammad Awaluddin said his firm'€™s remittance business would surge as the country'€™s total remittances keep growing.

'€œLast year alone, total remittances flowing into the country reached around Rp 80 trillion,'€ he said.

The World Bank has predicted that 2014'€™s total remittances flowing to developing countries, including Indonesia, will increase by around 7.8 percent.

In 2012 alone, the country, which has no fewer than 6.5 million migrant workers, became Southeast Asia'€™s third-largest remittance recipient, surpassed only by the Philippines and Vietnam, according to the organization'€™s data.

Otong said that to grab a larger share in the remittance market, Finnet would expand its remittance service, dubbed Delima Remittance, to Malaysia next month as well as to Macau and Japan by end of this year.

'€œWe aim to handle between Rp 600 billion and Rp 700 billion in remittances next year, double our estimated value of remittance transactions that we will handle this year of around Rp 300 billion,'€ he said.

Awaluddin said Hong Kong would make up around 80 to 85 percent of this year'€™s estimated value of remittance transactions handled by his firm, while the remaining 15 to 20 percent would be from Taiwan and Malaysia.

'€œBesides having a bigger presence abroad, we are also expanding our remittance service in the domestic market by partnering with retail operator PT Sumber
Alfaria Trijaya [SAT],'€ he said, adding that SAT would mainly be focused on helping remittance recipients in the country cash out their money.

Telkom signed an agreement on Monday with SAT to provide both Delima Remittance and a multi-billing payment service in around 10,000 SAT outlets across the country, consisting of minimarkets Alfamart, Alfamidi, Alfa Ekspress as well as convenience store Lawson and health and beauty store DAN+DAN.

With the agreement, Telkom would have no fewer than 40,000 outlets or agents that provided its various electronic services, Awaluddin said.

He said Telkom would also target transport service providers and retailers to expand its e-money business, especially the government'€™s policy to boost non-cash transactions in the country.

Bank Indonesia is urging banks and telecommunication companies to help the country become a '€œcashless society'€.