Financial inclusion: A better tomorrow for all Indonesians

Imagine an Indonesia where the poor no longer struggle to set money aside and can accumulate savings as a cushion against unforeseen emergencies, and not run the risk of losing money through theft.

Imagine an Indonesia where people no longer having to resort to loan sharks to borrow money at exaggerated interest rates.

Imagine more than 4 million overseas migrant workers no longer repatriating their earning in cash when returning home but sending their earnings home electronically, without requiring their families to travel to a bank. Imagine millions of Indonesian children receiving education because their parents have access to the right kind of savings products; and imagine Indonesians who have never had a bank account climbing out of poverty and improving their livelihoods using a broad range of financial services.

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Migrant worker remittances reached US$5 billion

Total remittance garnered by Indonesia's more than 4 million migrant workers as of September reached US$5 billion, or around Rp 45 trillion.

There are now 4.32 million Indonesian workers overseas sending money back home, according to the central bank's release Thursday.

Bank Indonesia, the ministry of manpower and transmigration and the Placement and Protection of Overseas Labor (BNP2TKI) have been monitoring migrant workers placements since 2005.

The central bank said this was important to count the total flow of foreign exchange sent by TKI or remittances, which showed improvement over the last few years.

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INDONESIA: UPDATE 1-Indonesia's Mandiri to open remittance unit in Malaysia

JAKARTA, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Indonesia's Bank Mandiri (BMRI.JK) will open a new unit in Kuala Lumpur dedicated to collecting remittances from the millions of Indonesians working in Malaysia, a senior executive said late on Thursday.

Thomas Arifin, Director for International Banking, said the new unit would help Mandiri, Indonesia's biggest bank, increase its fee-based income.

"The bank will initially cover millions of Indonesian workers who are working in Malaysia by progressively extending the number of outlets," Arifin said in a text message sent to Reuters. Read more

Migrant workers` remittances at US$9.9 bln per year

Serang (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) - Some six million Indonesian migrant workers abroad are sending a total of about Rp100 trillion (US$9.9 billion) home a year, making them the country`s second largest foreign exchange earner after oil and gas, a manpower official said.

National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI) head Jumhur Hidayat said on Monday migrant workers were doing a great service to their country because they helped to reduce unemployment, each of them was providing a living for an average of five family members, and having a "multiplier effect" on regional development.

He said the government should treat migrant workers with high respect, from the time they depart, while they were working abroad until they return home.

Source:
Business in Asia Today - Sept 2, 2009
published by Asia Pulse Source

Indonesia remittances may drop 5-10 pct in '09-agency

JAKARTA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Indonesia expects remittances from its overseas workers to drop by up to 10 percent in 2009 as the global economic crisis forces firms to cut costs, the head of a state agency in charge of migrant workers said on Tuesday.

The agency said Indonesians working abroad sent home about $8.2 billion last year, an estimate based on an assumption that that 70 percent of the income received by registered workers was sent back. The figure could reach up to $10-11 billion if it included remittances from unregistered workers, the agency said. Read more

INDONESIA: Foreign remittances set to fall with global slowdown

JAKARTA, 26 January 2009 (IRIN) - The amount of money sent home by Indonesians working abroad is expected to decline this year due to the global economic slowdown triggered by the financial crisis, government officials and economists said.

About five million Indonesians work overseas, 65 percent in the domestic sector, mainly in Middle East countries, and sent approximately US$6 billion home in 2007, according to the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers.

The amount is equal to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product, making remittances Indonesia's second-largest foreign exchange earner after oil and gas, said Mohammad Jumhur Hidayat, chairman of the agency. Read more

INDONESIA: Middle East region experiences growth in innovative remittance service

With the launch of Visa Money Transfer in Indonesia and the expansion of a program in Singapore, Visa is making it easier and more secure for people in 15 countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia to send and receive funds.

Visa Money Transfer, a card-based service enabling a Visa cardholder to send funds conveniently and securely to another Visa cardholder, debuted in Ukraine in 2003.

Since then, the service has been extended to millions of people who no longer need to wait at a money transfer agent's office, but instead can use the convenience and security of their 16-digit Visa account number to send and receive money.

Depending on their issuing bank, they can execute the transfer at a bank branch, using the internet, via an ATM or via mobile phone. [Read More]