Queen Máxima in Indonesia: February 11-13

As a special advocate of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for inclusive finance for development, Queen Máxima arrived in Jakarta, the capital of the Republic of Indonesia, on the evening of Sunday February 11 for a two-day visit.

On Monday February 12, the first day of her visit, the Queen was in Bandar Lampung, capital of the province of Lampung, in the southern of Sumatra island. Upon her arrival, Queen Máxima visited the farmer company Vasham. This company, founded in October 2013, aims to offer “sustainable and scalable business solutions to improve the wellbeing of smallholder farmers, their families and their communities”.

The Vasham company help corn producers and small farmers by providing loans, advising on business operations and fair access to drying processors and markets in order “to achieve significantly better standards of living”.

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Back in Jakarta in the afternoon, the Queen attended a roundtable discussion focused on the value chain financing at the presence of representatives from the agriculture sector.

The second and final day of the visit, Tuesday February 13, began for Queen Máxima with several institutional meetings.

The first meeting was with President Joko Widodo at the Istana Merdeka, the Presidential Palace. They talked about financial inclusion and the progress made by Indonesia. Talking to the press after the meeting, Queen Máxima praised the progess made by the country but also stressed the efforts that Indonesia still has to make in order to achieve financial inclusion to the rural polulation and farmers: “Indonesia is well on their way with the roadmap of National Financial Inclusion Strategy, there are still challenges ahead to reach target 75% of all Indonesians having a formal bank account in 2019”.

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Afterwards the Queen paid a working visit to the fintech innovator company Go-Jek. The company, founded in 2010, “as a motorcycle ride-hailing phone service, has evolved into an on-demand mobile platform and a cutting-edge app, providing a wide range of services that includes transportation, logistics, mobile payments, food delivery, and many other on-demand services”. Go-Jek operates in 50 countries across Indonesia and aims to “improve the welfare and livelihoods of workers in various informal sectors in Indonesia”.

Then the Queen met with the Indonesian Minister of Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution, the Minister of Finance, Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the Minister for Development and Cultural Affairs, Ms. Puan Maharani, the Governor of the Bank Indonesia, Agus Martowardojo and Wimboh Santoso, Chairman of the Financial Services Authority (OJK). The last event of the visit was a roundtable discussion held at the Secretariat of the National Council for Inclusive Finance (DNKI).

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Menko Perekonomian Darmin Nasution menerima kunjungan kehormatan Utusan Khusus PBB untuk Inklusi Keuangan/United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advocate (UNSGSA) for Financial Inclusion, Ratu Maxima dari Belanda, Selasa (13/2), di Kantor Kemenko Perekonomian pic.twitter.com/d6iWL4tB7e

— Kemenko Perekonomian (@PerekonomianRI) February 13, 2018

Filed under The Netherlands
Tagged Agriculture, Inclusive Finance, Indonesia, Patronage, President Widodo of Indonesia, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Technology, United Nations, Working Visit.