Queen Máxima visits Indonesia for access to financial services
News item 07-02-2018 | 17:07
Her Majesty Queen Máxima will visit the Republic of Indonesia from Sunday evening 11 to Tuesday evening 13 February in her role as Special Advocate of the United Nations Secretary General for Inclusive Financing for Development. In the autumn of 2016, Indonesia launched a 'national strategy for inclusive financing' to promote access to financial services such as bank or savings accounts, loans, insurance and pensions.
With the national strategy, the government wants to achieve, among other things, that at the end of 2019 75% of the adults have access to a bank account. Good access to financial services contributes to the economic and social development of people and poverty reduction, according to the World Bank. Queen Máxima was also in August 2016 for the UN in Indonesia.
She advised, among other things, to set up a National Inclusive Financing Council to coordinate the implementation of the strategy. This council is now actively under the supervision of President Joko Widodo. During this visit, Queen Máxima will focus on the progress of the implementation of the strategy. Points of interest are the realization of more bank agencies, innovative digital financial services and mobile banking to bring banking facilities closer to the population. The geography of Indonesia is characterized by many thousands of islands. Partly because of this, access to banking is difficult to organize and limited. Another point of attention is the financing of agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises.
On Monday, February 12, Queen Máxima paid a working visit to the province of Lampung on the island of Sumatra, which is characterized by agriculture. Among other things, she speaks with small farmers about the structural improvement of agricultural yields through value chain finance. This is the financing of activities in the chain of products and services in a production or delivery process and the value increase that takes place during these processes. Through social entrepreneurship, the Vasham company supports the development of small farmers by providing loans, advising on business operations and mediation for fair prices. At the end of the afternoon Queen Máxima takes part in a roundtable discussion with representatives from the agri sector to talk about value chain financing.
On Tuesday, February 13, Queen Máxima will speak with the secretariat of the National Council for Inclusive Financing. She also speaks with the Minister of Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution, the Minister of Finance, Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the Minister for Development and Cultural Affairs, Ms. Puan Maharani, Governor Martowardojo of the Bank Indonesia and Wimboh Santoso, President of the Financial Authority. Services (OJK). Queen Máxima also makes a working visit to the company Go-Jek. Go-Jek offers transport on motorcycles via a taxi-app. Various services from small entrepreneurs are also provided, for example meal delivery. People who work for Go-Jek also have access to formal financial services such as a bank or savings account, insurance and mortgages. For most, this is the first time they come into contact with this. Queen Máxima closed the visit to Indonesia with a roundtable discussion with her regular development partners such as the World Bank and the IMF. During the visit there is also a meeting between Queen Máxima and President Widodo.
Queen Máxima visited Indonesia twice before in her UN function, in early April in 2012 ( RVD press release number 86 ) and at the end of August 2016 ( RVD press release number 181 ).
RVD, no. 35
