BANK MANDIRI TO FOCUS ON EXPANSION IN ASIA PACIFIC

Jakarta, March 6 (ANTARA) - Bank Mandiri has decided to postpone its plan to set up a branch in Dubai as it will focus on expansion in the Asia Pacific region, a spokesman said.

"We have postponed our plan to open a branch in Dubai and would prioritize opening a network in Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai," its president director, Agus Martowardojo, said after a meeting with state enterprise minister Sofyan Djalil at the latter's office here on Thursday.
He said the decision to postpone the opening of a branch in the capital of Uni Arab Emirates was taken in anticipation of global situation following a financial crisis that had made many countries record a negative growth.
He said although Indonesia's economy was predicted to grow four to five percent or higher than the world's economic growth rate the crisis remained to affect the country.
"Although Mandiri's cost efficiency ratio is below 45 percent it has to continue to remain prudent in making expansion decisions," he said.
He said Mandiri would be more selective in opening new branches. Its overseas branches so far are in Singapore, Hong Kong and London. "The branch in Kuala Lumpur is expected to operate in the first semester this year while the one in Shanghai in the second semester," he said.
Agus however said that it was not impossible for the bank to open a branch in the Middle East in 2010.
Earlier the bank's director of special asset management, Abdul Rachman, said the opportunity to open network in the Middle East such as in Qatar, Uni Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia was wide as shown by the increasing bank's customer basis in the region.
According to him, the branches are needed to expand the service of the bank from banking, financing, securities to financial advisory.