Indonesia’s representative office in Taipei and PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) Tbk on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to work together to promote Indonesian products and services in Taiwan, and enhance trade and business ties with Taiwanese firms.
Budi Santoso, head of the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, and Endry Supriadi, manager of Bank Rakyat Indonesia’s Taipei branch, signed the MOU at the trade office in a ceremony attended by Indonesian diplomats and businesspeople.
The MOU would facilitate cooperation between the trade office and the bank on marketing Indonesian products and services, exchanging data, and sharing information.
It would make it easier for them to bring together producers, exporters, importers and buyers in Taiwan and Indonesia.
Indonesia is Taiwan’s 13th-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade between the two nations increasing more than 61 percent to US$10.96 billion last year, up from US$6.79 billion in 2020, Bureau of Foreign Trade data showed.
Bank Rakyat Indonesia opened its first branch in Taiwan on Nov. 30 last year in Taipei, becoming Indonesia’s first state-owned bank to operate a branch in Taiwan.
Initially, the bank is targeting Indonesian nationals in Taiwan and businesses with ties to Indonesia.
The bank’s priority is to serve micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and to help people at the grassroots level of the Indonesian community in Taiwan, which numbers about 300,000 people, Budi said.
“Indonesians will feel confident saving money at BRI as it is an Indonesian state bank,” Endry said.
The bank supports the local Indonesian community, including its many migrant workers, and hopes to facilitate investment and money transfers between Taiwanese and Indonesian businesses, he added.
As it recently opened, the branch hopes that the central bank would issue its foreign-exchange license by next month so that it can begin providing remittance and other financial services, he said.
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