Queen Maxima Visits Indonesia to Assess Progress in Financial Inclusion
Jakarta. Dutch Queen Maxima, the United Nations secretary general's special envoy for financial inclusion, is visited Indonesia to see its progress on the route to universal, affordable and safe financial services.
Maxima began her three-day visit on Sunday (11/02). She met with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Darmin Nasution and officials from the World Bank and the UN office.
On Monday, the queen went to Lampung, where she visited social enterprise Vasham, which supports smallholders with loans, management consultations and negotiations for fair prices of their products and services.
On Tuesday, the queen met with representatives of ride-hailing service Go-Jek at a local meatball soup restaurant in Central Jakarta. Wanting to knowhow the company's Go-Pay platform acts for the sake of financial inclusion and Indonesia's transition to a cashless economy, Maxima discussed with Go-Pay chief executive Aldi Haryopratomo and Go-Jek drivers the company's help in easing access to housing and hajj loan for its driver-partners.
During her third visit to Indonesia as the UN secretary general's special advocate, the queen was assessing the implementation of the national strategy for financial inclusion, which was launched in late 2016 to expand access to financial services such as savings accounts, loans, insurance and pensions.
The Argentinian-born queen, who advocates support for the microcredit industry in developing countries, said her focus in Indonesia is now on introducing and providing payment solutions in rural areas.
"[There] you have fewer distribution systems and smaller populations. So you have to be more creative and even more innovative. And that is the reason for my second visit in one year and a half. [We need] to be more innovative to really go with solutions to help farmers, really help the poor," Maxima told reporters on Tuesday.
According to the queen, financial inclusion should be facilitated by increasing proliferation of digital payment technology.
Maxima was appointed the UN secretary general's envoy in 2009.
Her advocacy supports President Jokowi's goal for Indonesia's financial inclusion rate to reach 75 percent in 2019.
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