Jakarta, 4 April 2022 -- PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BNI (stock code: BBNI) supports trade relations between Indonesia and the United States business players. This commitment was confirmed by the preparation of the BNI Xpora program which helps various local Small, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) products to be better known abroad.
Indonesian Ambassador to the United States, Rosan Roeslani said, BNI also played an important role in assisting the export and import of MSME products belonging to the Indonesian diaspora, which reached approximately 200,000 people in the US.
"With their program (BNI) not only provides banking facilities, but also provides financial education programs for the diaspora to carry out import-export activities. And all these banking facilities are massively provided by Bank BNI because BNI also has branches in many countries," said Rosan at BNI Global Diaspora Week with CNBC Indonesia in the middle of April 2022.
He also appreciated BNI's efforts to provide high flexibility when the Indonesian diaspora in the US experienced several obstacles, thus making the continuity of the business world run well from small to large scale.
“Diaspora needs financing that is fast, appropriate, and understands our entrepreneurs’ business world, as well as regulations and competition in the United States. So BNI is very proactive in picking up the ball that exists among this diaspora," he added.
Surefire Strategy
Rosan said that there is a surefire strategy to encourage the promotion of Indonesian MSME businesses in the US, namely through digitalization. It is recorded that out of almost 60 million MSMEs, only 9 million have been touched by digitalization.
"We hope that with this digitalization (BNI Xpora) including the banking sector and many parties who can help MSMEs to be more active on the export side. We also provide market intelligence or input regarding the market condition in the US, the trends and expectations, so that it can be adapted to the MSME products that we are more accepting and fit to enter the American market," said Rosan.
General Manager of BNI New York, Aidil Azhar said, not only encouraging MSME businesses to go international, BNI is also committed to providing a myriad of financial solutions to Indonesian diaspora customers in the US. One of these solutions is in the form of loans both for working capital and for purchasing equipment, vehicles, place of business and so on. In the banking world, this assistance is categorized as working capital loans and investment loans.
"In addition, to Indonesian diaspora business players who usually carry out import or export trade transactions, BNI New York also provides trade finance services, for example by providing Letter of Credit (LC) opening, advising LC, LC discounting, and Foreign Exchange,” said Aidil.
Operational
Aidil admitted that he saw many Indonesian diaspora businesses buying goods or imports from Indonesia. This makes them sometimes need an operational account denominated in Rupiah, for example to make payments to partners in Indonesia.
"So in the case of BNI, it can also help to open rupiah accounts without having them return to Indonesia because the New York branch has collaborated with domestic units at BNI to open Rupiah accounts," he explained.
As for diaspora financial transactions that have been handled by BNI New York, Aidil said, it have a good trend. Moreover, he continued, in the last few years where the Indonesian government has given high enough attention to MSME players, both Indonesian and overseas, especially in the United States
"So we provide a lot of loans or financial solutions to them, especially the MSME group. We see more and more Indonesian diaspora in the United States who really want to be entrepreneurs and develop their businesses here," said Aidil.
In fact, many of the diaspora are trying to leverage Indonesian products for sale to the United States market. This is said by Aidil to be another very good trend because these diaspora can also take part in increasing Indonesia's export transactions.
Sweet Story of BNI's fostered MSMEs in America
BNI itself has brought many MSMEs to successfully penetrate the international market, one of which is the Food Services Industry belonging to the Indonesian diaspora in the United States, Golden Nest Corporation. Golden Nest Corporation has been a customer of BNI New York for more than 10 years, and uses BNI's financial facilities as working capital. Thanks to BNI's support from working capital, Golden Nest Corporation has made many developments in other fields.
Golden Nest Corporation representative Jemmy Pranyoto said that when he first used BNI's financial services, the company was still fully an importer and distributor. Starting from the last 10 years, thanks to BNI, Golden Nest has started to engage in food manufacturing.
"So there is a change here. I see BNI is quite flexible. Even though on paper it is only as working capital, I see this as a whole, this is a full package to support us here," said Jemmy.
He also said that Golden Nest does not view BNI New York as not only an Indonesian bank in the US. Moreover, BNI New York is said to be an American bank owned by Indonesia, so its regulations always follow the regulations of US bodies, such as The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and all kinds of other audits.
In the future, he hopes that BNI's support for business players and diaspora in the US will continue. The plan is that Golden Nest will expand to more states in the United States.