Indonesia Stock Market Way behind Malaysia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chairman of the Financial Services Authority’s (OJK) commissioner board Muliaman Hadad said Indonesia's stock market was lagging behind neighboring Malaysia's. He added the lags could be viewed from multiple aspects, including market capitalization value and the number of investors.

Malaysian capitalization value presently reaches US$3 trillion, while Indonesia only sees around US$300 billion. Muliaman said the number of Malaysia’s issuers was also considerably higher than that of Indonesia.

“The current number of Malaysia’s issuers is already 907, while Indonesia’s has yet to exceed 500,” he said during a conference of the Indonesian Issuers Association at Hotel Grand Hyatt in Jakarta, Tuesday, June 3, 2014.

He added that the number of investors in Malaysia's stock market accounted for 12.8 percent of the country’s total citizens, while Indonesia only saw less than one percent.

Muliaman said education for the people regarding the stock market, the improvement of good corporate governance, better market penetration, and product diversification were necessary to step up Indonesia stock market’s competitiveness.

According to Muliaman, Indonesia was actually playing a significant role in the ASEAN region viewed from the trade and population points of view. He said the government could exploit these aspects to better the welfare of the people.

FAIZ NASHRILLAH