Queen Máxima Returns to Indonesia to Support Further Advances on Financial Inclusion

Queen Máxima speaking at the UN during her previous visit to Indonesia in 2016. Photo credit: Oktobernardi Salam
Queen Máxima speaking at the UN during her previous visit to Indonesia in 2016.

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), will visit Indonesia to explore progress and opportunities to expand financial inclusion, 12–13 February 2018.

During her last visit to the country in 2016, President Joko Widodo signed Indonesia’s national strategy for financial inclusion, which aims to provide 75% of adults with access to services by 2019. Since then, the national strategy has driven significant work and progress on access and use of financial services, including savings, loans, payments, and insurance. Among the Special Advocate’s suggestions at the time, the institution of a national coordination council with the President as its chair has helped drive progress among government ministries.

During this visit, Queen Máxima will focus on the progress of implementing the strategy and will highlight certain paths that could be useful for the country as it presses ahead toward its goal.

Points of interest include expanding banking agents and digital financial services to help reach people living in remote areas, from traditional banks. She will also highlight finance for agriculture small businesses.

The first day of the visit the Special Advocate will go to the province of Lampung on Sumatra, where she will speaks with a group of small farmers who work with Vasham, a value-chain finance and distribution company that supports corn producers and sellers through loans, training, and fair access to drying processors and markets. Back in Jakarta she will take part in a roundtable discussion with representatives from the agriculture sector about value chain financing.

On Tuesday, she will meet with President Widodo and will also speak with the secretariat of the National Financial Inclusion Council. In addition, she will meet with a number of ministers whose work touches significantly on financial inclusion, including Minister of Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution; Minister of Finance Mulyani Indrawati; Minister for Development and Cultural Affairs Puan Maharani; Governor Agus Martowardojo of the Bank Indonesia; and Chair of the Financial Services Authority Wimboh Santoso.

She will also visit with Go-Jek, a fintech innovator that began as a moto ride-sharing app and now offers a wide range of delivery services to customers—at the same time opening up markets and finance opportunities for small service providers such as drivers and food providers. She will closed the visit with a discussion with her development partners such as the World Bank and the UN.