Spotlight on Indonesia
Key results
Murphy continues, 'We have developed a pilot
cr project for enterprise risk management. We have
appointed a Project Leader for the region and the
General Managers in each country will also act as
Chief Country Risk Officer. This approach gives us a
more holistic approach to risk. Each country has
credit risk, market risk, operational risk, legal risk,
reputation risk, and we all have people managing
them, but we need someone looking at the
connectivities between all these risks to make sure
something doesn't slip between the cracks.'
By the end of 2007 the team hopes to have doubled
revenues to US$272 million. Progress will also be
monitored at intervals. 'So now the really hard work
begins.' Murphy does not seem phased: 'We also
detailed the implementation, and that is key. Further,
nothing has been cast in stone, we work in evolving
markets with evolving capabilities and the strategy and
its implementation have to be flexible to this reality.
Through this process l've seen the potential of the
people we have and I am very confident.'
Antonio Costa
Notwithstanding devastating events in recent years, Indonesia's market demand is
strong, leading to many opportunities for Rabobank's office in the country to
further enhance profitability and core activities in F&A and TMI, as well as
implement the many new initiatives stemming from SAT ine.
The prospect is exciting to Antonio Costa, General Manager of the Jakarta office.
'We see a lot of opportunity in TMI. Currently penetration rates areonly at 10% so
the market is still growing rapidly and the margins for telecom operators are still
high. In F&A we are taking advantage of the market perception as specialists in
F&A, as there are significant trade flows as Indonesia is a major exporter of palm oil,
coffee, pepper, cacao, and major importers of wheat, soya and sugar,' he says.
Indonesia will also look into life sciences as a possible sector. Costa sees many
similarities between the Indian market, where the pilot has been very successful,
and the Indonesian market. 'In Indonesia there are a lot of small players, with no
one market player with a significant market share. There is definitely room for
consolidation and growth and we feel we can offer the necessary financing
and advice.'
Islamic banking will also be a prospective new initiative, with research currently
being conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia to determine how to proceed.
Although today, in terms of assets, Islamic banking only represents about 2% of
banking assets, the sector is growing at over 30% per year.
The Word
