Bank Mandiri Persero Tbk PT : Encourages Private-Sector Participation in Development Process

Jakarta, January 27, 2015 - Bank Mandiri, together with Mandiri Sekuritas and Barclays, has staged the Mandiri Investment Forum (MIF) 2015 to encourage private-sector investment in support of the national development process. Increased investment will help support the efforts to achieve higher economic growth.

The Indonesian government is targeting economic growth of 5.8% in 2015, according to the amended 2015 budget, which envisages an increase in investment of 10%, much higher than the 4.6%-5% investment growth penciled in for 2014.

Bank Mandiri Group CEO Budi G. Sadikin said that in support of these efforts, Bank Mandiri was staging the investment forum to serve as an information bridge between government and prospective investors.
"With a better understanding of the various reforms and innovations that have been introduced by the government so as to improve the investment climate in Indonesia, investors will be more confident about making investments in this country, especially in those sectors that are being prioritized by government," Budi explained.

The event, which was themed "Indonesia: Pushing Structural Reform," was attended by a number of ministers, the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the OJK, Muliaman D. Hadad, and the Governor of Bank Indonesia, Agus Martowardojo.

In addition to regulators, the forum also featured keynote speaker Jim O'Neill, professor of economics at the University of Manchester and a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Mr. O'Neill is also the author of the book, "The Growth Map," in which the term BRICs (to describe Brazil, Russia, India and China as motors of the global economy) was first coined. The forum was attended by some 700 investors, including 150 overseas institutional investors.

As part of the MIF activities, Bank Mandiri and Mandiri Sekuritas invited investors to visit a number of infrastructure projects, including the Kalibaru Port development and Soekarno Hatta Airport expansion project, as well as a number of property and retail projects. In addition, investors held separate one-on-one or small-group meetings with Indonesian companies to explore prospective business and investment opportunities.

In addition to bringing together investors, Bank Mandiri supports higher economic growth through, among other things, the provision of financing for infrastructure development in Indonesia. Currently, Bank Mandiri has outstanding loans to the infrastructure sector amounting to Rp 47.25 trillion and USD 40 million. These have been used to develop seaport, airport, power plant and highway projects.

Meanwhile, Jim O'Neill said that Indonesia would be one of the prime investment destinations in 2015, besides China and India. "The potential of Indonesia is very good, considering that growth in Indonesia is quite high and it has a large population," Mr. O'Neill said.