Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia at the 2022 Financial Services Industry Meeting and the Launching of the Indonesian Green Taxonomy, Virtually from Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java Province, January 20, 2022

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,
Good morning,
May peace be upon us all,
Om Swastiastu,
Namo Buddhaya,
Greetings of virtue.

Distinguished Heads of State Institutions;
Distinguished Ministers of the Indonesia Onward Cabinet;
Distinguished Governor and Board of Governor of Bank Indonesia;
Distinguished Chief Commissioner of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the Board of Commissioner;
Your Excellencies Ambassadors and representatives of friendly countries;
Distinguished Governors from all corners of Indonesia, players in financial services industry;
Ladies and Gentlemen.

The 2021 is a year of uncertainties which is filled with never-ending complex issues. Yet, we are now entering a crucial phase, the economic recovery. As mentioned by Chairperson of the OJK, several economic indicators continue to improve. Economic stability and financial system are maintained at good state. We also have strong foundation to speed up the recovery.

The 2022 will be a momentum, a momentum. The pandemic started to be kept under control. However, we still need to stay vigilant against Omicron variant.

Vaccination coverage continues to increase. Today, I have received report that 301 million doses of vaccines have been administered to the public. The coverage of the first dose has reached 85 percent and the second reached 58 percent. We also have been administering booster since 12 January 2022. The improving condition of the handling of pandemic should make us rather optimistic, to trust the public and business persons to resume economic activities and other productive activities.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Although performance of the real sector has shown an improving trend, we must stay vigilant against the development of COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the Omicron variant, as well as the global economic dynamics along with the uncertainties within. The issues of food scarcity, energy scarcity, container scarcity, worsening inflation, rising of producer price must always be followed since they will bring impacts to our country.

The prolonged pandemic has deeply affected certain sectors. At the same time, disruption on global supply chain has triggered an increase in global commodity prices which increasing the uncertainty of global inflation. A more specific, detailed and effective treatment strategy is needed, so that it will not interfere the recovery efforts that we are currently undertaking.

Therefore, the policies and supervisory instruments issued by the OJK must be able to prevent the spread of the impact of the pandemic, especially on the economy and financial sector. In addition, it must also be able to help the informal sector and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to be able to survive so that they can grow better by carrying out various innovations and breakthroughs, as clearly mentioned by Chairperson of the OJK.

I appreciate the ranks of the OJK who can coordinate well with each other. The financial services sector and the real sector must support and strengthen each other in difficult times like this. Without a good financial services sector, the national economy will not run well and sustainably.

At the same time, the financial services sector also will not be able to grow strongly if it is not supported by movements in the real sector. If the financial services sector only thinks about profit without moving the real sector, there will be a potential for Ponzi schemes, investment fraud, and the like. Such models of fraud are very detrimental to society. Issues like this are also our task together with the OJK as the motor.

In difficult times, supervision must not be slack because weak supervision will open up gaps, open up opportunities for the emergence of various modes of financial crime which will harm the community. This kind of thing should never happen.

Distinguished Guests,

We are aware that 99.9 percent of our businesses are the MSMEs. Though MSMEs are large in number, the ratio of bank credit to that sector has not increased yet. It is still in a range of 20 percent. I have talked about these three or four times.

Therefore, as Chairperson of the OJK said, the target for 2024 is to increase the portion of the MSMEs to 30 percent. To achieve that figure, we cannot only depend on regular growth. We need strategies that apply breakthroughs, as well as consistent and sustainable serious measures.

Difficult credit access, difficult access to financing for businesses in the informal sector, MSMEs who have difficulty accessing capital, cooperatives that have difficulty at accessing capital must no longer persist. We must improve and speed up the access to provide better opportunity for the youth to start a business and for the MSMEs to develop their businesses.

The MSMEs also play a crucial role in economic recovery measures that are projected to address bottleneck supply chain issues arising from the gap between high demand and low supply since global supply chain has not fully recovered yet. The success of MSMEs to transform during the pandemic is an important asset to help them improve to the next level and to drive the ongoing economic development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Infrastructure development will be accelerated which will be followed by reforms in manufacturing and industry sectors. Down streaming of mineral products and the export of mining products will also be intensified. I have reiterated over and over again that we will stop exporting nickel, stop exporting copper, stop exporting lead, and stop exporting gold in raw materials.

We will enhance development of industrial areas and special economic zones that are expected to be new centers of economic growth which can increase export values of manufacturing sector and create added value to the economy. Structural reforms will also continue to be adopted by focusing on environmental, social, and governance economic development. We will also continue to encourage digital transformation to achieve sustainable economic growth.

I look forward to support from financial services sector and industry in speeding up national economic recovery and materializing structural reforms.

That concludes my remarks on this auspicious occasion. And by saying bismillahirrahmanirrahim, this morning I hereby launch the Indonesian Green Taxonomy.

I thank you.

Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Om Santi Santi Santi om.
Namo Buddhaya.

(RAS/MMB)