Meeting With The People's Business Credit Recipient Farmers, The OJK Boss Gets Advice: Limit The Imports, We Borrow Capital From Banks

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Wimboh Santoso reviewed the implementation of the People's Business Credit (KUR) program for the rice farming cluster in Brujul Village, Jaten District, Karanganyar in order to realize the establishment of an agricultural ecosystem and improve public financial access.

During his visit, Wimboh said that the authorities encourage banks to be able to provide financing facilities to agricultural clusters so that they can add value to farmers and create a well-consolidated ecosystem.

"Access to public finances to formal financing is very important to support the acceleration of national economic recovery," he said in a press statement, quoted on Friday, October 1.

According to Wimboh, support also needs to focus on strengthening the regional economy by paying attention to local characteristics and superior commodities.

"We hope that this cluster KUR ecosystem can continue to grow and develop, so that it can contribute to increasing public financial access that can support improving people's welfare and accelerating national economic recovery," he said.

On the occasion, Wimboh also held a dialogue with representatives of the Association of Farmers (Gapoktan) to hear firsthand the developments and obstacles in the field in the implementation of the stimulus policies that have been issued by the OJK and the government.

From the discussion that was built, there was hope for farmers to the government to be able to issue regulations that favor local actors.

"Gapoktan expressed hope that it will be able to obtain price stability as well as restrictions on rice imports and ease of access to financing, especially from banks," said the Gapoktan representative to Wimboh.

For information, this agricultural cluster KUR has been implemented and replicated in several areas to create an ecosystem that helps farmers obtain financial support, assistance, and also marketing of their agricultural products.

The KUR Cluster Ecosystem is expected to help farmers who are members of 25 Gapoktan to continue to run their business and help cooperate with other off-takers in providing facilities to support rice processing.

Based on data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, it is known that the realization of KUR this year until September 20 was IDR 183.78 trillion, equivalent to 64.48 percent of the ceiling distributed to 4.9 million debtors throughout Indonesia.