Jakarta, January 20 – Swisscontact’s SELF program and the International Finance Corporation’s Program for Eastern Indonesia Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Development, or PENSA, are helping Jakarta’s smaller businesses obtain the finance they need for business growth.
Swisscontact and PENSA are today establishing a Promoting Enterprise Access to Credit (PEAC) unit in Jakarta, following the successful launch of PEAC BROMO in East Java. Today’s announcement is the initial step to building an independent commercial institution mandated to promote enterprises' access to credit. Jakarta’s PEAC unit will help small and medium-size enterprises gain access to finance by certifying business development service providers to originate and monitor credit for financial institutions such as commercial banks and community banks, or Bank Perkreditan Rakyat (BPR).
"PEAC Jakarta will enhance smaller business lending in Jakarta by improving linkages between banks and business community. It will work to strengthen business development service providers through training, the exchange of knowledge and commodities," said IFC PENSA Access to Finance Program Manager Terry Wyer.
Swisscontact’s Indonesia Resident Representative Peter Bissegger said the facility "aims to improve service provider skills in financial matters and understanding of banking products, provide services to banks related to SME lending, and develop networks between banks and service providers to improve their quality".
In addition to Swisscontact and IFC PENSA, the PEAC Program is supported by Bank Indonesia, national and local banks and the Indonesian Government.
Swisscontact and IFC PENSA are searching for interested individuals or institutions who are willing to invest start-up capital for the establishment and operation of the facilitation unit and who are qualified to run the facilitation unit. The effort starts with an open tender orientation today (January 20) at the Hotel Mulia. About 40 institutions are interested in the prospect of operating the PEAC Jakarta business unit. The purpose of this tender orientation is to explain SME access to finance program in details by Swisscontact and IFC PENSA.
Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation (Swisscontact) is a non-profit and politically neutral organization. Through the Small Enterprise Link to Finance (SELF) project, Swisscontact aims to improve access to finance for small businesses in Indonesia.
IFC is the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. The PENSA facility has a five-year mandate and has been co-funded by IFC and the governments of Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and The Netherlands, with initial funding commitments of $22 million.
