5,000 brokers to be trained this year
5,000 brokers to be trained this year
JAKARTA (JP): The Capital Market Society of Indonesia (CMS)
will train 5,000 brokers this year as part of efforts to
encourage local investor participation in the capital market, the
society's executive director Joseph Luhukay said yesterday.
"The 5,000 brokers will be trained mostly in selling mutual
funds. It is part of our program to train around 50,000 brokers
for the capital market during the next five years," said Joseph.
Joseph spoke to the press after signing a memorandum of
understanding with I Putu Gede Ary Suta, chairman of the
Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam), on the
management of a Public Information Service Office.
The office, to be established as part of the Capital Market
Reference Center, will provide data on companies listed on the
Indonesian capital market.
Managed by CMS, the Capital Market Reference Center will
become the capital market's information center and include a
library.
Joseph noted brokers had a major role in encouraging the
participation of local investors in the capital market, which was
still dominated by foreign fund managers.
He said Indonesia had approximately 1,000 licensed
brokers.
"This is very small compared to our population of almost 200
million. We need to have more, particularly to develop local
mutual funds, the key to developing a domestic investor base," he
said.
Putu said the number of brokers must be increased if the aim
of having approximately five million local investors by the year
2000 was to be achieved.
But he said these new brokers should not only act as
"brokering agents" on the trading floor. "They should be able to
act as financial consultants for local investors," he said.
He cited the U.S. as an example, where 500,000 brokers served
about 50 million local investors.
Joseph said there was a tendency on the international capital
market for the brokers' job to no longer be limited to brokering
activities on the trading floor.
Putu said most Indonesian brokers focused their attention on
the trading floor, while brokers in developed markets often also
act as financial consultants.
He urged the 200 securities firms in Indonesia to promote
brokering jobs among university students. (bnt)