Jakarta, Tuesday (21/2/2023) -- By officially assuming the ASEAN Chairmanship for 2023, Indonesia's position as the center of Southeast Asia's economic growth is increasingly strategic. Indonesia is also determined to direct cooperation among countries to focus on regional economic growth for the prosperity of the Southeast Asia people.
PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. or BNI as a state-owned bank has a major contribution to the success of Indonesia's position as the chair of ASEAN 2023 through business cooperation for the region. Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi appreciates BNI for being proactive in building cooperation in the financial sector.
BNI is noted to have implemented Local Currency Transaction (LCT) which is intended to reduce the dependence of Indonesia and Partner Countries on certain currencies while strengthening the stability of the regional financial system. In fact, Retno appreciated BNI for having made bilateral agreements with Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand in terms of Digital Payment (QR Code) cooperation.
According to her, BNI as a global bank from Indonesia can look for business opportunities in the ASEAN Chairmanship 2023 so that it can continue to grow widely. The government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also ready to provide support to lead BNI and State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) to be stronger in penetrating business abroad.
"BNI's job is to look for opportunities, especially during the ASEAN Chairmanship 2023, please do your best, if there is anything that the government should facilitate, we will be happy to help. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has collaborated with SOEs, namely SOEs Go Global, which means we help so that SOEs go out more. Inshallah BNI will be more advanced in the future," she said recently in Bali.
On the same occasion, BNI President Director Royke Tumilaar said the world's geopolitical developments and global economic monetary policy could put pressure on banking performance.
By looking at the existing opportunities, according to him, there are still many areas that need to be developed by the company through synergy and collaboration across segments, divisions / units in carrying out business execution.
"The world economy will be more challenging in 2023. However, we remain optimistic that everything can be passed with full readiness and caution," Royke said.