17 January 2018

2018 Economic Outlook: Opportunities for the Local Economy


Pontianak, Januari 17, 2018 – PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk (BTPN) and Bisnis Indonesia daily held the Entrepreneur Networking Forum. The forum, which themed the 2018 Economic Outlook: Optimizing regional potential in digital era, presented INDEF economist Bhima Yudistira and BTPN Business Banking head Sonny Christian Joseph as speakers. Bisnis Indonesia daily editor-in-chief Hery Trianto served as the moderator.

 

The discussion revealed opportunities and challenges faced by businesspeople in 2018. In his presentation, Sonny Christian Joseph said that as a bank which has a vision to change the lives of millions of Indonesians, BTPN believes that innovation is the key for growth.

 

Therefore, BTPN continues to innovate to fulfill the customers’ needs. One of the innovations is by presenting BTPN Mitra Bisnis, a business unit which is specially designed to serve different needs for small and medium enterprises (SME) as a reliable financial solution, business capacity development and opening access to a wider market.

 

BTPN Mitra Bisnis is present with different products and banking services to support the customers’ capital business needs and investment. Apart from products and financial-related services, BTPN Mitra Bisnis is also present with nonfinancial solution supports to help customers develop their capacity in running their business in the Program Daya. The program is a continuous and measurable empowerment program from BTPN to increase the customers’ capacity.

 

Through Daya Tumbuh Usaha Mitra Bisnis, customers will get the inspiration for successful businesses, widen their knowledge as well as building networking among BTPN Mitra Bisnis customers.

 

“We have different topics which are specially designed based on the customers’ needs, such as business tax by inviting tax consultant, making financial reports, legal aspect in business and increasing marketing through digital media. These forums are expected to inspire our customers so they can keep innovating and can keep updated with technology development today,” Sonny said.

 

To support the business process which is oriented in customers’ needs and comforts, BTPN Mitra Bisnis is also using digital platform. As the service could be adjusted based on each customer’s needs, Sonny hoped BTPN Mitra Bisnis could become a partner for SMEs to help develop their businesses and at the end could help support the society’s economic growth.

 

At the same occasion, INDEF economist Bhima Yudistira predicted that Indonesia’s economy in 2018 would grow by 5.1%. Export, investment and government spending remain the push factors for national economic growth. As the growth momentum is good enough, the prospects in several sectors such as Food and Beverages, hotels, mining and agriculture are expected to be better in 2018.

 

Meanwhile, the economy in West Kalimantan is expected to grow by 7 % in 2018, or higher than the national economic growth. The province has the advantage of the bouncing prices of certain commodities such as palm oil, crude oil and coal.

 

“The crude oil price in 2018 may reach or may be over US$80 per barrel. It means the commodity boom era will give benefit to Indonesia as one of the largest commodity exporters in the world,” Bhima said.

 

Bhima is optimistic that in the digital economy era, the MSME sector will get the advantage of a wider access to mass product market and production efficiency. “The key for MSME to win competition is their ability to see which sector is growing and keeps innovating, especially in facing the very dynamic digital era,” he said.


For further information please contact:

 

PT Bank BTPN Tbk
Andrie Darusman – Communications & Daya Head
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

 

Bank BTPN in brief

PT Bank BTPN Tbk (Bank BTPN) is a foreign exchange bank and is a merger between PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk (BTPN) and PT Bank Sumitomo Mitsui Indonesia (SMBCI) in February 2019. Bank BTPN serves various segments in the banking industry, from retail to corporate customers, including retirees, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) and productive underprivileged communities; the consuming class segment; and the corporate segment. Bank BTPN provides the services through business units, such as BTPN Sinaya—a business unit for wealth management, BTPN Purna Bakti—a business serving retirees, BTPN Micro Business—a business unit serving microbusinesses, BTPN Business Banking—a business serving small- and medium-sized enterprises, Jenius—a digital banking platform serving the consuming class segment, and the corporate business unit, which serves national, multinational, and Japanese companies. Bank BTPN also has a subsidiary, namely PT Bank BTPN Syariah Tbk, which focuses on serving productive underprivileged customers. Bank BTPN also regularly provides training sessions and information for customers through the Daya Program—a sustainable and measurable empowerment program—to improve customers’ capacity so they can grow and have a chance to live better.