Investment fiesta: Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) director of corporation assessment Samsul Hidayat (second left) along with IDX director for trading and membership Alpino Kianjaya (left), IDX director of development Nicky Hogan (second right) and IDX director of transaction monitoring and compliance Hamdi Hassyarbaini (right) hold a press conference during the launching of the âMutual Fund Fiestaâ
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The Indonesian bourse authority has launched the biggest mutual fund expo in Jakarta aimed at increasing public investment in the capital market. The event involves 42 financial companies such as investment managers, securities companies and banks.
Currently, the heavily populated country has very low public participation in the capital market. Only 250,000 people of the nation's 250 million are registered as investors, according to Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) data.
Indonesians must shift their financial orientation from a savings-oriented society to an investment-oriented one, and as a start, the IDX would appeal for them to put their money in mutual funds as a low-risk investment in the capital market, IDX director Samsul Hidayat said.
"Mutual fund investment is the front door to getting to know the financial market. Once the public has enough knowledge, the next step is investing in stocks or bonds, and then they can invest in derivatives instruments," he said.
Investing in mutual funds is simpler than stocks or bonds, and more secure as they are managed by an investment manager. Investors do not need to start with large amount of money as the investment unit is affordable, some are priced at Rp 100,000 (US$7.2).
Samsul expects 4,000 visitors to attend the mutual fund expo, held from Jan. 26 to Jan. 30. In accordance with Vice President Jusuf Kalla's call in November last year for the event to be free as to attract more new investors.
"Mutual fund investment is growing despite the slowing economy in 2015. The net active value [NAV] was Rp 268.4 trillion, an increase from the 2014 NAV of Rp 241.4 trillion," IDX Director Nicky Hogan said. (ags)(+)
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