UNSOED Conferences, The 3rd International Conference On Sustainable Agriculture For Rural Development (3rd ICSARD)

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Strengthening Digital Economic through Financial Inclusion in Rural Area
Yesi Hendriani Supartoyo

Last modified: 2023-02-16

Abstract


Digital economic growth in Indonesia shows a satisfactory increase. In developing a digital economy, communication and information infrastructure must be in existence in order to succeed. Digital economic facing challenges, especially from demand and market aspect, namely inequality of exposure to digital technology between urban and rural areas (digital divide). Urban – rural gap is a common issue. In developing economies account ownership tends to be lower in rural areas than in urban areas (Global Findex, 2017). But precisely quantifying the urban – rural gap presents difficulties. In the current digital era, infrastructure and technology have become the very foundation aspect in supporting the process of accelerating financial inclusion. So, increasing financial inclusion through digital technology can be alternative solution to leveraging digital technology among the unbanked. Digital technology is also transforming the payment landscape. Digital financial services have the potential to become a source of capital for developing business. Based on our survey on Financial Inclusion Insights Indonesia 2020, we have the results that banking agents continue to be a key point of service for rural residents who live further away from bank branches than do their urban counterparts. Agent banking is successfully reaching rural areas; 77.9% of rural residents were aware of agent banking locations compared to 62.5% urban residents. Surprisingly, account ownership is more common in urban areas, but is growing faster in rural areas. Digital financial innovation in the financial sector makes a point that financial inclusion matters for development.