Sri Mulyani Emphasizes The Importance Of Building Financial Literacy In Society

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani emphasized the importance of understanding financial literacy when making investments. According to him, the public must understand the fundamentals of selected investment instruments so that they can reduce potential losses to fraud.

"People who want to withdraw your money to invest must have a good story. And that's why you need to be literate. He wants to tell whatever your money is after for investment or to be scammed. Don't look at his face, look at the numbers, look at the data, look at the fundamentals," he said. Minister of Finance as reported by the official website, Monday, August 14.

The state treasurer revealed that 85 percent of the people have used financial services, whether it's transactions such as saving and investing. However, the financial literacy is still around 50 percent.

"This means that many of our people have used financial services, but the literacy is only 50 percent. That is a homework for all of us," he said.

For this reason, the Minister of Finance reminded the entire community to understand the fundamentals of each investment instrument, including when investing in government bonds, namely state securities (SBN). The public can learn the fundamentals of SBN by reading the economic and financial conditions of Indonesia whose data can be seen in the release of the KiTa State Budget every month.

"Read the state budget, we report it every month. The state budget is healthy or not, it's good or not. Our economy is good, it means I believe. We have to get used to reading fundamentals," he said.

The Minister of Finance also asked the public not to be easily tempted by investment products that provide the lure of quick, high, and safe profits because there is a possibility that this is indicated by fraud.

"Don't let those who have inclusion then enter into various investments or financial activities, which then harm themselves because they don't understand and are literate about investment aspects," he stressed.

Furthermore, the Minister of Finance said the Ministry of Finance will continue to collaborate with Bank Indonesia, the Financial Services Authority (OJK), and the Deposit Insurance Corporation (LPS) to build coordination forums in order to increase Indonesian literacy, including collaborating with all parties, such as through universities.

"Because the most important thing about literacy is something that you can learn and it has a lot of relationships and benefits for you as a provision of life, planning life, and also to maintain the results of your work that you have maintained to be invested in a good place," he said.

Indonesia will only be able to progress if we all care and take care of it together. The way to care and take care is to understand how to take care of this country, take care of your finances, and take care of it to invest in a good place. We will all continue to communicate, collaborate, and synergize so that we will all maintain the momentum of Indonesia to progress," closed the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani.