The Jakarta Post/Asia News
NetworkThursday, Apr 09, 2015
In a bid to support President Joko
"Jokowi" Widodo's lofty maritime axis plan, the Financial Services
Authority (OJK) has instructed banks to increase credit for the sector by 50
per cent to 128 trillion rupiah (S$13.3 billion) this year, an official says.
OJK deputy commissioner for banking
supervision, Irwan Lubis, said the financial authority wanted credit for the
maritime sector to increase by 43 trillion rupiah this year to speed up
development.
"We have done this because finance for the marine sector is
still at a very low level," Irwan said
during a discussion in South Jakarta on Monday.
Credit disbursed to businesses in the
sector reached 85 trillion rupiah last year, according to OJK data. That amount
was roughly 2.4 per cent of total credit disbursements in the country.
Irwan said banks were wary of extending loans to the sector because
of a lack of understanding between them and debtors.
"That's why we're creating a database to build up information
[on the sector]," he said, adding
that it was mapping out six sub-sectors, from capture fisheries to marine
tourism.
In addition, the OJK and lenders will train 1,000 accountants to understand the
ins and outs of the maritime industry.
They will also print guidebooks to
help increase financial literacy among small-scale enterprises (SMEs) working
in the sector.
He said banking institutions had identified the sector's high rate
of non-performing loans (NPLs) as a hurdle to financing businesses, although it
had improved over the years.
The maritime sector's NPL rate last
year was 3 to 3.5 per cent, better than five years ago when it exceeded 5 per
cent.
Irwan said that an NPL rate of 2 to 2.75 per cent was ideal to
mitigate any risks and keep businesses sustainable.
In February, the OJK formed a team of
experts comprising officials from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry,
banks and insurance companies.
The team's task is to sift through
business proposals to identify prospective businesses to which to extend loans,
all the while identifying risks and maintaining lending quality.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry's (Kadin) deputy chairman for maritime and fisheries affairs, Yugi Prayanto, said the industry group's
regional representatives would help the team by scouting for sound business
proposals and forwarding them to it.
Yugi said Kadin would prioritise proposals from the aquaculture
sector and other fisheries-related industries, arguing that these were areas
that required the most development.
Meanwhile, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia's
(BRI) head of business programs and partnership business division, Teten Triadi, said his institution was
committed to the OJK's cause.
Teten cited the company's target of
disbursing 2.5 trillion rupiah to 3.5 trillion rupiah in credit through its 11
trillion rupiah sector-specific credit total this year, as well as an
additional 2.5 trillion rupiah in its new "food credit" programme
that would benefit businesses working in the food sector.
Banking institutions have also voiced
concerns regarding the difficulties in navigating the maritime sector.
According to Teten, maritime industry
players, most of which are small-scale fishermen and SMEs, can still benefit
from proper guidance regarding the financial system.
"[Businesses in this sector] are in need of coaching and
mentoring; they can't be left alone, especially with the technicalities of
financing. This is important to ensure the conduciveness of financing," he
said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Bank Mandiri senior vice
president for micro-network development, Maswar Purnama, said that financing
institutions were hard pressed to find a way to mitigate the risk of the
sector's seasonality, often resulting in credit flowing to other sectors
considered more attractive.
Maswar hoped that the situation would
improve this year, although he declined to share his projections.
Last year, Bank Mandiri disbursed 1.7
trillion rupiah to 61,000 customers.
