Mashill holds finance workshop

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)