TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) encourages insurance and pension fund companies to invest in infrastructure sector as this kind of investment is beneficial for the government and investors.

“Insurance and pension fund have long-term funds. They have a potential to become investors,” said OJK chief commissioner Muliaman Hadad on Wednesday, September 2.

According to Muliaman, OJK will promote the purchase of bonds with underlying asset in infrastructure projects. However, not all insurance companies can invest in this infrastructure fund.

OJK prioritizes companies with good portfolio. “One of the tings that is taken into consideration is capital health and healthy company management,” said Muliaman.

Most companies that are able to invest are large insurance companies while medium and small-scale companies must be more careful. OJK also sets 20 percent as the minimum limit for investment.

“Basically, we want them to invest safely, so when prices fall, the won’t collapse immediately. They do have less options for better return,” said Muliaman.

OJK keeps promotion this move because the total fund of insurance and pension fund is large. Muliaman gave example from a total of Rp1,600 trillion, if companies invest 20 percent, Rp320 billions is already collected. Therefore, the government can reduce dependency in bank loan and foreign debt.

URSULA FLORENE SONIA