Mashill holds finance workshop

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Mashill will cooperate with Bank Indonesia, the central bank, in holding a series of workshops on how to benefit from the government's trade financing scheme.

Bank president Dradjat Bagus Prasetyo said on Saturday that the workshops would start in Bandung, West Java, later this month and move to other cities in Indonesia.

"The workshops are aimed as a bridge between importers and banks to hear their difficulties in using and distributing trade financing facilities."

He said importers, mostly producing export products, have long complained that they were still required to deposit a huge amount in local banks before they could be issued letters of credit (L/Cs), despite government guarantees of L/Cs.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has said the government has obtained US$5.77 billion in loans from international donors to guarantee L/Cs issued by local banks and to provide-export financing facilities.

But most of the trade financing facilities have not been fully utilized by local banks or importers. (gis)