YOGYAKARTA – In the past ten years, investment in Indonesia has progressed rapidly, as shown in the growth of public companies at a percentage between 18 to 20. Even stock price of national companies in stock market has soared as high as 2000 percent. This condition gives big economic opportunities for people who want to invest in financial sector. “Stock investment has grown tremendously, in the long term the investment development will get better,” said Vice Director of Mandiri Investa, David Jonas, in a general lecture entitled Portfolio of Mutual Fund Investment in Faculty of Economics and Business, Wednesday (24/4).
Jonas said that some national companies since 17 years ago had experienced stock price growth in stock market. For example, the stock value of Astra has increased up to 2,000 percent compared to year 1996. Unilever has experienced a 1,800 percent increase. “In 6 years, the stock of Mandiri Bank has increased by 1,600 percent,” he said.
According to Jonas, mutual fund can become a choice to invest as it is managed by investment manager. Apart from being affordable, it also offers investment diversification. Even investment performance is monitored daily by investment manager and observed by Bapepam LK. “For mutual funds, the transaction is as easy as banking transaction, while purchase and disbursment of investment are diversified,” he said.
He gave an example that if an investor invest IDR100 thousand per month for 30 years in Mandiri, he will get the benefit up to IDR2.3 billion. The benefit will increase if the fund is increased. “Through mutual funds, your quality of life in the next 30 years can be planned ahead,” he said.
Taufik Gumulya, practitioner of financial planning said that the only way to be rich is by investment. In his opinion, financial investment has not become a trend in Indonesia while in fact this would give much bigger additional income. “Investment is to evade deficit. The older people get, the more expense they spend due to debts. Those who have income should prevent themselves from deficits in their future through investing," he concluded.