President urges banks to focus on small businesses

News24xx.com -JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has called on banks that chiefly focus on fund management and are reluctant to offer credit to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to pay greater attention to micro businesses.

"Banks should not be focusing on managing funds but should offer credits, especially to SMEs," President Jokowi stated at the Financial Service Industry Annual Meeting 2018 in Jakarta, Thursday night.

The former governor of Jakarta added that working on the micro business sector needs additional efforts, in terms of energy and mind.

However, he asserted that micro businesses should be given additional attention if the level of inequality is to be reduced.

"The government and Financial Services Authority are preparing locations for setting up micro banks at several locations. There would be no interest but an administrative fee of only three percent," he noted.

To this end, the president has advised that banks should not be overly involved in managing funds but should simplify the credit distribution process, or in other words, the amount of debt distribution is uneven and not extensive.

"We must encourage people to connect with the banking system," he emphasized.

Reported by antara, president asserted that the government fully supports the financial industry in the country, so it can strengthen the quality of economic growth.

"We will continue to encourage state-owned enterprise, companies, and banks to find alternative financing models, especially for funding infrastructure projects, so the state budget does not have to bear the entire burden. The state budget is mainly used for the benefit of the people," he added. *

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