JAKARTA. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is pushing local start-ups to create applications that can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to become more bankable.

Jokowi said SMEs with unmanaged bookkeeping was among one of the factors that made it difficult for businesses this size to access financial services from banks. According to Jokowi, it came from the behavior of clerks too lazy to book transactions or simply because a company did not have the resources to do so.

"I hope young start-ups can create apps to help SMEs in that kind of task," he said in his speech at the Indonesia Fintech Festival and Conference at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) in Serpong, Tangerang, on Tuesday

Jokowi also praised the banking industry’s eagerness in reaching out to unbanked individuals through the use of technology, including by the introduction of branchless banking program "Laku Pandai". (Anton Hermansyah)

Editor: Dupla Kartini