T

he Financial Services Authority (OJK) is hoping to see more funds channeled to the maritime and fisheries sector this year as the regulator and the financial industry gear up to finance a raft of projects.

Speaking on Monday, OJK deputy commissioner for banking supervision Irwan Lubis said the agency was optimistic that domestic banks would be able to jack up current outstanding loans by more than half in 2015, supported by a new program that it had recently mapped out.

'€œWe hope, by the end of this year, that outstanding loans will climb 67 percent year-on-year, but this target is specifically for activities in the micro, small and medium sector,'€ he said in a press conference.

The double-digit target will bring outstanding loans to more than Rp 29 trillion.

Last year, the figure stood at Rp 17.6 trillion (US$1.35 billion), according to banking statistics published by the OJK. Most of the credit was channeled to areas across Java in the form of working capital loans.

Within the overall lending portfolio reported by the banking industry, fisheries- and maritime-related loans accounted for only 0.5 percent of the total in 2014.

'€œWe need to spur higher disbursement for fisheries and maritime activities, especially in the eastern part of Indonesia where they play the largest part in people'€™s daily activities,'€ Irwan said.

He added that a number of lenders had laid out in detail their upcoming activities in the fisheries and maritime sector within their business banking plans, which contain more than Rp 11 trillion worth of projects.

Some lenders will also participate in the launch of the OJK'€™s Jaring program aimed at providing financing to fisheries- and maritime-related businesses. The program will be initiated in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on May 11.
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'€œWe are looking to expand financing to this sector by Rp 300 billion through our DSP units [in 2015].'€

Lenders set to participate in the launch are Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Mandiri, Bank Danamon, PermataBank, Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional (BTPN), Bukopin and Bank Sulselbar, which is a regional development bank based in Makassar.

The OJK'€™s deputy commissioner for non-banking supervision, Edy Setiadi, said that the non-banking industry was preparing to join the Jaring program as well, with 12 financing firms already signed up.

'€œWe expect to see an additional Rp 500 billion of funds enter the fisheries and maritime sector from non-banking firms,'€ Edy said.

Data from the OJK show that non-banking firms '€” mostly venture capital firms '€” had contributed only around Rp 2.8 trillion by December last year.

Separately, Danamon vice president director Muliadi Rahardja said that as of last year, the private lender had disbursed Rp 320 billion in micro loans to the fisheries sector through its Danamon Simpan Pinjam (DSP) units.

'€œWe are looking to expand financing to this sector by Rp 300 billion through our DSP units [in 2015],'€ he wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, PermataBank president director Roy Arman Arfandy said that his bank'€™s exposure to the fisheries and maritime sector remained limited, at less than 5 percent of total loans, but he added that the bank was committed to channeling at least Rp 500 billion of funds through the Jaring program.

'€œOur initial commitment is half a trillion rupiah, but we will see how the program develops in the future,'€ he said.