Jakarta, 5 September 2023 - As a total foods solutions company with a global presence, PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk (Indofood) is proud to be part of the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit 2023 (ABIS), themed “ASEAN Centrality: Innovating towards Greater Inclusivity.”

One of the panel discussions in ABIS was “Envisioning ASEAN’s Economic Future: Trends, Transformations and Triumphs,” moderated by Michael Lawrence as Chief executive of Asia House. The discussion featured Anindya Bakrie as CEO of Bakrie Group, Le Thi Thu Thuy as Global CEO of Vinfast, Zhengjun Zhang (Jun) as Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific, Axton Salim as Director of Indofood and Michaela Browning as Vice President of Government and Public Policy for Google Asia Pacific.

During the panel discussion, Axton Salim said, “The key challenges to aspiring entrepreneurs, as areas of opportunity for growth, are the demographic in Asia and the gaps that pose opportunities such as financial inclusivity, MSMEs’ growth and internet access.”

Only 52% of Indonesia's population have access to financial inclusion accounts; comparatively, the global average is about 74%. Despite this, MSMEs continue to grow. There are 64.6 million businesses with 110 million entrepreneurs and workers, which accounts for 37% of Indonesia’s GDP equal to 2.5 billion dollars. Yet, the loans for MSMEs amount to around 19.9% of total loans. On the other hand, Indonesia has 203 million internet users, 196 million mobile internet access and 94% of people have access to broadband. These served as a suitable foundation for digital bank growth.
 

Axton Salim stated that, “Bank INA, a member or Salim Group, see that there are many opportunities to be developed. We see how banks, through digital means, can help the unbanked market. Therefore, we try to connect the traditional with the digital side. Through technology, it becomes hassle-free to sign up and open an account; account holders can deposit and withdraw money through thousands of banking agent, grocery stores and mini-markets across Indonesia. Bank INA also offers same-day approval services for productive loans with attractive rates. Besides these services, Bank INA provide enrichment programs by providing supply chain management, point of sales, accounting solutions and basic business training for the micro, small, medium business customers. These are the things that we can do using digital and helping the unbanked; without technology, we would not be able to reach as many people.”

The ABIS event is a platform for ASEAN countries to face these challenges. ASEAN countries and businesses can work together and share best practices on financial inclusivity, partnerships, policies, and technological components. ABIS 2023 brought together more than 2,000 participants from 50 countries, including government officials, CEOs and senior executives representing multinational and regional corporations.