Digital banking transactions across Indonesia have grown 47% year-over-year through November to 3,877 trillion rupiah ($269.52 billion), in large part because of the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, according to BI data.
The new BI-Fast system brings customers real-time, secure money transfers of up to 250 million rupiah (about $170,000), at a maximum cost of 2,500 rupiah (17 cents) per transaction, said Warjiyo, compared to the current interbank money transfer cost of 6,500 rupiah (46 cents) per transaction.
“(BI-Fast) will accelerate the digitalization of the national economy, integrate the payment system industry from end to end — digital banking, FinTech, eCommerce and consumers, promote economic and financial inclusion and support the national economic recovery,” said Warjiyo.
Indonesia’s internet economy expected to be worth $146 billion by 2025, Reuters report, a figure that represents 20% compounded annual growth, according to a November report by Alphabet’s Google, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and global business consultants Bain & Company.
Related: Indonesian Startups Roll Out the Welcome Mat to US Investors
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Earlier this month, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Informatics invited U.S. investors to a virtual networking event as part of the Joint Exhibition & Junction of start-up Landscape in Indonesia, or JEJALA ID. The event introduced startup founders to investors and venture capitalists and included roadshows, workshops and seminars.
Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the ministry’s director-general of informatics applications, said the get-together was a way to ensure that “our thriving start-ups” will generate jobs, help grow the economy and lead to digital transformation.
Indonesia’s 2,100 startups include nine unicorns, the second most digital tech billion-dollar private entities in southeast Asia after Singapore, which has 15 unicorns. Indonesia also has the youngest demographics in southeast Asia.
