Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
The financial inclusion of women micro entrepreneurs is both important and necessary for the holi... more The financial inclusion of women micro entrepreneurs is both important and necessary for the holistic socio-economic development of a nation. This paper aims to address the gap in the study of the processes of financial inclusion by women micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia. The research will contribute to the pool of academic resources related to financial inclusion, micro credit, and women entrepreneurship that intend to improve the processes and benchmarking for financial inclusion initiatives. In writing this paper, there was extensive literature research plus in situ research conducted in Indonesia. There is also a significant amount of evidence that is related to factors that contribute to gender inequality. Both desk research and field research found that financial exclusion is linked to financial education, cultural norms of rural Indonesia and high banking cost and mobile payments. In conclusion, the authors recommend improving processes in designing financial products and financial education, and lowering the cost of banking, especially in the use of mobile payment technology, and instituting micro-insurance. Further research is recommended to generate hypotheses relating to financial inclusion and women entrepreneurship in Indonesia.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
Global cell-phone ownership has surpassed over 5 billion. The proliferation of cell phones offers... more Global cell-phone ownership has surpassed over 5 billion. The proliferation of cell phones offers an unprecedented opportunity for aid organizations and governments in developing countries for providing affordable medical services for everyone. The available standardized interfaces of low-cost cell-phones allow us to create powerful medical diagnostics systems. For instance, digital cameras of cell phones now provide easy to use interfaces for capturing useful information of various medical conditions. However, photographic images often contain private and sensitive personal information in its raw form thus considered unsuitable for many available online services. Therefore, there is a need for a computational algorithm for extracting anonymous, de-identified, digital features from captured images for assessing medical conditions and general personal wellbeing. We present a de-identified feature generation method, called Gaussian Hamming Distance (GHD). We show that GHD features are significantly correlated with personal wellbeing. Its low computational complexity makes it ideal to be used with low-cost mobile devices. Its prediction power is suitable for providing a variety of online services including recommending useful health information for improving general wellbeing.
International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2012
Mobile technologies are powering up economic and social development in developing countries. This... more Mobile technologies are powering up economic and social development in developing countries. This pilot study aims to generate a set of preliminary results that will contribute to advancing research on the impact of mobile money services on microenterprises and microentrepreneurs. The location of the study is set in rural Cambodia.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
Banking is essential to modern economies, yet nearly half of the world’s people are unbanked and ... more Banking is essential to modern economies, yet nearly half of the world’s people are unbanked and underserved by banks. This is mainly due to the high operating costs of banks that are passed on to retail customers, driving away customers who are not able to afford the high service costs. Without having access to the financial system the unbanked and rural poor have little means to engage in mainstream economic activities. In this chapter, we present a low-cost mobile phone-based core-banking system. This system was designed to provide retail banking services to the world’s unbanked population and rural poor of 2.2 billion based on a cashless banking system that reduces operating cost and lending risks and therefore lower the current exorbitant rates charged on retail lending and micro-credit. Our analysis and evaluation shows that the mobile core-banking system on a low-cost mobile device (an Android tablet) is able to serve over 15,000 micro-banking customers. The system is therefore suitable for retail banks or microfinance institutions.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
Bank rating is as old as bank regulatory authorities. The most common approach to bank rating is ... more Bank rating is as old as bank regulatory authorities. The most common approach to bank rating is on-site examination. The bank supervision authority conducts an audit of physical bank records and documents and other observations. In particular, the on-site examination looks at the bank’s assets, capital structure, management ability and professionalism of the bank practices. A summary rating is assigned based on this examination. This approach was reported in 1974 in a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This rating system was called into question for the first time during the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) of the 1997 that affected South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia. IMF painfully restructured the South Korean economy. Thailand suffered a severe outflow of funds and banks collapsed. The entire Indonesian banking system had to be revamped. Then the global financial crisis struck in 2007–2008, where the western world was hit harder than the AFC that led to the collapse of venerable financial institutions such as Lehman Bros and Bear Sterns. This begs the question: why bank ratings did not, or cannot, forewarn imminent failures in the banking system. In 2009, it was reported that banks were usually rated higher if they had greater capitalization, larger assets, and higher return on assets and equity. In 2013, in a most scathing attack on bank ratings, it stated that most failing banks had enjoyed investment status ratings just before they defaulted. This paper revisits the age-old CAMEL model and its derivatives, and a more recent EAGLES framework that alerted the Asian Financial Crisis of the 1990s. Based on the experiences of two crises in the last two decades, what lessons did we learned, especially on the early warning signals, contagion effect, information transparency and the availability of technology processes to collect and harness critical information.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
This chapter reports a new simulated smart learning environment, called Mobile Collaborative Expe... more This chapter reports a new simulated smart learning environment, called Mobile Collaborative Experiential Learning (MCEL). MCEL provides automated, continuous, personalized, and formative feedback. Students interact with the simulated learning system via simple text messages using mobile devices in order to change the state of the system to a desired state over time. In the process, students engage in complex problem solving activities, and the system provides continuous formative assessment to help the students achieve learning objectives. Unlike conventional summative assessment approaches, students acquire set competency levels during their journey to achieving certain goals while interacting with the simulated system. MCEL allows instructors easily define learning journeys using event-condition-action (ECA) rules and reliable structured-text parser. A pilot study of MCEL is conducted and evaluated on a group of twenty Masters-in-IT students. Their participation is observed and a survey is conducted. The evaluation results show that MCEL supports Bigg’s constructive alignment in curriculum design, contextualized experimental learning, and personalized formative learning.
The empowerment of women micro entrepreneurs is necessary for the holistic social-economic develo... more The empowerment of women micro entrepreneurs is necessary for the holistic social-economic development of a nation. The aim of this paper is to address the gap in the study of formal financial access to rural women micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia. This study will contribute further in the pool of academic resource for micro-financing organisations intending to create formal financial products for this niche market. Meta-analytic research methodology was employed to review relevant literature, in order to assemble supporting data relating to women’s constraints for access to formal micro-finance for women. As a result, a hypothesis was devised that gender inequality is the underlying constraint for rural women entrepreneurs to access formal microfinance. Evidential data was reviewed for factors pertaining to gender inequality index, general and financial education status, and social-cultural norms of rural Indonesian women. In conclusion, the authors found that gender inequality issues require further attention by micro financers during the design process of successful micro-financial products. In addition, relevant recommendations were formulated such as aesthetic redesign of financial outlets, reduction in lead time and costs for micro-financial transactions, and micro-insurance. Further research is required to conduct a test of the generated hypothesis at the location under discussion.
ABSTRACT In recent years, information and communication technologies ICT impacted greatly socioec... more ABSTRACT In recent years, information and communication technologies ICT impacted greatly socioeconomic development in developing countries. Encouraged by the development of rural IT network projects in countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Philippines, the government of Vietnam focused on IT infrastructure and capacity building efforts. Under the framework of public administration reform in Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development MARD project scheme, a study was conducted in setting up Rural Telecentres RTs to provide information to farmers in Vietnam. Farmers' opinions and their needs in relation to agricultural and rural issues were considered in establishing 13 RTs in rural communities. The post-implementation survey indicated that the RTs fulfilled their objectives in improving the livelihoods of rural farmers. This paper presents the experiences and lessons learnt from the RTs project particularly in strengthening arguments in favour of national level ICT projects in rural development.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing Research, 2013
In this study, we propose to diagnose facial nerve palsy using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and... more In this study, we propose to diagnose facial nerve palsy using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Emergent Self-Organizing Map (ESOM). This research seeks to analyze facial palsy domain using facial features and grade the degree of nerve damage based on the House-Brackmann score. Traditional diagnostic approaches involve a medical doctor recording a thorough history of a patient and determining the onset of paralysis, rate of progression and so on. The most important step is to assess the degree of voluntary movement of the facial nerves and document the grade of facial paralysis using House-Brackmann score. The significance of the work is the attempt to understand the diagnosis and grading processes using semi-supervised learning with the aim of automating the process. The value of the research is in identifying and documenting the limited literature seen in this area. The use of automated diagnosis and grading greatly reduces the duration of medical examination and increases the consistency, because many palsy images are stored to provide benchmark references for comparative purposes. The proposed automated diagnosis and grading are computationally efficient. This automated process makes it ideal for remote diagnosis and examination of facial palsy. The profiling of a large number of facial images are captured using mobile phones and digital cameras.
Abstract This paper aims to provide clear and appropriate evidence of factors that trigger studen... more Abstract This paper aims to provide clear and appropriate evidence of factors that trigger student engagement of flipped classroom (FC) learning in higher education (HE), based on an example of a fully flipped business undergraduate degree program in Australia. Qualitative data from the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) of 142 first-year business students over seven consecutive trimesters (2017–2019) were gathered and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings provide a nuanced understanding on triggers of student engagement in relation to self-efficacy, emotion, well-being and belonging. The findings may guide educators in full adoption of FC in other undergraduate courses.
Management information systems deliver information—the right information to the right person, in ... more Management information systems deliver information—the right information to the right person, in the right form, at the right time. Such a system is an asset for planning and control. The key determinants for successfully implementing a system are described with reference to commercial banking.
According to UNESCO’s final figures for 2009, since 2000 the number of international students has... more According to UNESCO’s final figures for 2009, since 2000 the number of international students has increased by 75 %. The number of international students in Singapore is also expected to grow at 10 % annual rate reaching 150,000 in 2015. This number of students, according to a government’s foresees, is worth USD 5 billion and contributes to 2 % of GDP. As a result, there are various great opportunities coming up for higher learning education in Singapore. Singapore has become one of the most favourite destinations for international students for higher education; its growth rate is surpassing the traditionally favoured Western countries, such as US. International students have also become an important economic factor. According to former researches related to education, students are usually influenced by the surrounding sources of information as well as their own experiences. Besides, institutional factors such as program type, reputation, location, and facilities are also considered when students choose their higher learning institutes. Other studies also recognized the extreme importance of several country factors such as living condition, and safety that may affect students when they consider a destination for their study abroad. This chapter aims to examine the sources of information that international students in Singapore consider in order to choose Singapore as their study abroad destination. Additionally, the study also compares the importance of country factors and institutional factors. We have surveyed 234 students who are currently studying in Singapore to find out the competitive advantage of Singapore Tertiary Education. The results show that recommendations from friends and teachers have major influence on students’ decision in choosing their schools (higher education) and location of education, followed by country factors, such as personal security. Surprisingly, schools’ promotional activities and agents have limited influence on students’ decision making.
There are still a large number of unbanked people in Indonesia, particularly, in the rural areas.... more There are still a large number of unbanked people in Indonesia, particularly, in the rural areas. Without proper financial services, there can be no economy as banking is essential for any modern economy. Without economy, the livelihood of rural communities will remain poor. One reason for the large number of unbanked population in the rural areas is the cost of opening bank branches for low-income earners. It may not be cost-effective for banks to open branches in rural Indonesia. The number of customers may not be sufficient to cover the operating cost. This paper discusses digital banking services, such as online banking, SMS banking, and mobile banking. These new technologies could reduce the operating costs of banking services and allow the banks to provide financial services in the rural areas. This could potentially help the unbanked population have access to financial services, revitalize their local economy, and eventually improve the livelihood of rural communities, adding to the range of policy instruments to reduce rural poverty in Indonesia.
International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2014
MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and ... more MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and inevitably high operating cost per transaction. To ensure financial viability and to expand the depth and breadth of their operations, MFIs have to adopt cost recovery interest rates on microcredit, hence, MFIs have to charge interest rate high enough, usually substantially higher than the bank loan risk free interest rate. The major factors determining the interest rate on microcredit are the cost of funds, operating costs, loan loss cost and capital for business expansion. To illustrate the impacts of the above factors on interest rate, we present a summary of the current cost structures of microfinance institutes (MFIs) in three Southeast Asia countries, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Then, we review existing studies and propose new uses of mobile technologies and financial market innovations for lowering the interest burden.
Supporting diverse and rapidly changing learning styles of new digital age generations is a major... more Supporting diverse and rapidly changing learning styles of new digital age generations is a major hurdle in the age of massification of education markets. The institutions must now utilize the unprecedented network speed and mobile technology to stimulating learning environments for the new digital age generations. Institutions need to accommodate different learning styles of students often comprising of working professionals, different age groups and students from cultural backgrounds. Researchers have been trying solve these challenges through flexible learning and blended learning approaches. Faced with new digital age generations, unprecedented network speed and mobile technology, researchers now frequently quote mobilized curriculum, social-interaction oriented learning, personalized learning and collaborative mobile learning. This chapter reviews relevant education models, learning styles, literature, and technology to help identify new emerging research problems and research methodologies in m-learning.
MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and ... more MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and inevitably high operating cost per transaction. To ensure financial viability and to expand the depth and breadth of their operations, MFIs have to adopt cost recovery interest rates on microcredit, hence, MFIs have to charge interest rate high enough, usually substantially higher than the bank loan risk free interest rate. The major factors determining the interest rate on microcredit are the cost of funds, operating costs, loan loss cost and capital for business expansion. To illustrate the impacts of the above factors on interest rate, we present a summary of the current cost structures of microfinance institutes (MFIs) in three Southeast Asia countries, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Then, we review existing studies and propose new uses of mobile technologies and financial market innovations for lowering the interest burden.
Banking is essential to modern economies and nearly half of the world's people are unbanked a... more Banking is essential to modern economies and nearly half of the world's people are unbanked and underserved by banks. The high operating costs of banks passed on to retail customers are driving them away who otherwise should be in the financial system. Without having access to the financial system the unbanked and rural poor have little means to engage in mainstream economic activities. A mobile phone-based banking system was designed to provide retail banking services to the world's unbanked population and rural poor of 2.2 billion based on a cashless banking system that reduces operating cost and reduces lending risks and therefore can lower the current exorbitant rates charged on retail lending and micro-credit. A core-banking server on a low-cost mobile device (an Android tablet) could serve over 15,000 micro-banking customers. The system definitely appears to be suitable for most retail banks or microfinance institutions.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
The financial inclusion of women micro entrepreneurs is both important and necessary for the holi... more The financial inclusion of women micro entrepreneurs is both important and necessary for the holistic socio-economic development of a nation. This paper aims to address the gap in the study of the processes of financial inclusion by women micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia. The research will contribute to the pool of academic resources related to financial inclusion, micro credit, and women entrepreneurship that intend to improve the processes and benchmarking for financial inclusion initiatives. In writing this paper, there was extensive literature research plus in situ research conducted in Indonesia. There is also a significant amount of evidence that is related to factors that contribute to gender inequality. Both desk research and field research found that financial exclusion is linked to financial education, cultural norms of rural Indonesia and high banking cost and mobile payments. In conclusion, the authors recommend improving processes in designing financial products and financial education, and lowering the cost of banking, especially in the use of mobile payment technology, and instituting micro-insurance. Further research is recommended to generate hypotheses relating to financial inclusion and women entrepreneurship in Indonesia.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
Global cell-phone ownership has surpassed over 5 billion. The proliferation of cell phones offers... more Global cell-phone ownership has surpassed over 5 billion. The proliferation of cell phones offers an unprecedented opportunity for aid organizations and governments in developing countries for providing affordable medical services for everyone. The available standardized interfaces of low-cost cell-phones allow us to create powerful medical diagnostics systems. For instance, digital cameras of cell phones now provide easy to use interfaces for capturing useful information of various medical conditions. However, photographic images often contain private and sensitive personal information in its raw form thus considered unsuitable for many available online services. Therefore, there is a need for a computational algorithm for extracting anonymous, de-identified, digital features from captured images for assessing medical conditions and general personal wellbeing. We present a de-identified feature generation method, called Gaussian Hamming Distance (GHD). We show that GHD features are significantly correlated with personal wellbeing. Its low computational complexity makes it ideal to be used with low-cost mobile devices. Its prediction power is suitable for providing a variety of online services including recommending useful health information for improving general wellbeing.
International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2012
Mobile technologies are powering up economic and social development in developing countries. This... more Mobile technologies are powering up economic and social development in developing countries. This pilot study aims to generate a set of preliminary results that will contribute to advancing research on the impact of mobile money services on microenterprises and microentrepreneurs. The location of the study is set in rural Cambodia.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
Banking is essential to modern economies, yet nearly half of the world’s people are unbanked and ... more Banking is essential to modern economies, yet nearly half of the world’s people are unbanked and underserved by banks. This is mainly due to the high operating costs of banks that are passed on to retail customers, driving away customers who are not able to afford the high service costs. Without having access to the financial system the unbanked and rural poor have little means to engage in mainstream economic activities. In this chapter, we present a low-cost mobile phone-based core-banking system. This system was designed to provide retail banking services to the world’s unbanked population and rural poor of 2.2 billion based on a cashless banking system that reduces operating cost and lending risks and therefore lower the current exorbitant rates charged on retail lending and micro-credit. Our analysis and evaluation shows that the mobile core-banking system on a low-cost mobile device (an Android tablet) is able to serve over 15,000 micro-banking customers. The system is therefore suitable for retail banks or microfinance institutions.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
Bank rating is as old as bank regulatory authorities. The most common approach to bank rating is ... more Bank rating is as old as bank regulatory authorities. The most common approach to bank rating is on-site examination. The bank supervision authority conducts an audit of physical bank records and documents and other observations. In particular, the on-site examination looks at the bank’s assets, capital structure, management ability and professionalism of the bank practices. A summary rating is assigned based on this examination. This approach was reported in 1974 in a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This rating system was called into question for the first time during the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) of the 1997 that affected South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia. IMF painfully restructured the South Korean economy. Thailand suffered a severe outflow of funds and banks collapsed. The entire Indonesian banking system had to be revamped. Then the global financial crisis struck in 2007–2008, where the western world was hit harder than the AFC that led to the collapse of venerable financial institutions such as Lehman Bros and Bear Sterns. This begs the question: why bank ratings did not, or cannot, forewarn imminent failures in the banking system. In 2009, it was reported that banks were usually rated higher if they had greater capitalization, larger assets, and higher return on assets and equity. In 2013, in a most scathing attack on bank ratings, it stated that most failing banks had enjoyed investment status ratings just before they defaulted. This paper revisits the age-old CAMEL model and its derivatives, and a more recent EAGLES framework that alerted the Asian Financial Crisis of the 1990s. Based on the experiences of two crises in the last two decades, what lessons did we learned, especially on the early warning signals, contagion effect, information transparency and the availability of technology processes to collect and harness critical information.
Topics in intelligent engineering and informatics, Dec 28, 2014
This chapter reports a new simulated smart learning environment, called Mobile Collaborative Expe... more This chapter reports a new simulated smart learning environment, called Mobile Collaborative Experiential Learning (MCEL). MCEL provides automated, continuous, personalized, and formative feedback. Students interact with the simulated learning system via simple text messages using mobile devices in order to change the state of the system to a desired state over time. In the process, students engage in complex problem solving activities, and the system provides continuous formative assessment to help the students achieve learning objectives. Unlike conventional summative assessment approaches, students acquire set competency levels during their journey to achieving certain goals while interacting with the simulated system. MCEL allows instructors easily define learning journeys using event-condition-action (ECA) rules and reliable structured-text parser. A pilot study of MCEL is conducted and evaluated on a group of twenty Masters-in-IT students. Their participation is observed and a survey is conducted. The evaluation results show that MCEL supports Bigg’s constructive alignment in curriculum design, contextualized experimental learning, and personalized formative learning.
The empowerment of women micro entrepreneurs is necessary for the holistic social-economic develo... more The empowerment of women micro entrepreneurs is necessary for the holistic social-economic development of a nation. The aim of this paper is to address the gap in the study of formal financial access to rural women micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia. This study will contribute further in the pool of academic resource for micro-financing organisations intending to create formal financial products for this niche market. Meta-analytic research methodology was employed to review relevant literature, in order to assemble supporting data relating to women’s constraints for access to formal micro-finance for women. As a result, a hypothesis was devised that gender inequality is the underlying constraint for rural women entrepreneurs to access formal microfinance. Evidential data was reviewed for factors pertaining to gender inequality index, general and financial education status, and social-cultural norms of rural Indonesian women. In conclusion, the authors found that gender inequality issues require further attention by micro financers during the design process of successful micro-financial products. In addition, relevant recommendations were formulated such as aesthetic redesign of financial outlets, reduction in lead time and costs for micro-financial transactions, and micro-insurance. Further research is required to conduct a test of the generated hypothesis at the location under discussion.
ABSTRACT In recent years, information and communication technologies ICT impacted greatly socioec... more ABSTRACT In recent years, information and communication technologies ICT impacted greatly socioeconomic development in developing countries. Encouraged by the development of rural IT network projects in countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Philippines, the government of Vietnam focused on IT infrastructure and capacity building efforts. Under the framework of public administration reform in Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development MARD project scheme, a study was conducted in setting up Rural Telecentres RTs to provide information to farmers in Vietnam. Farmers' opinions and their needs in relation to agricultural and rural issues were considered in establishing 13 RTs in rural communities. The post-implementation survey indicated that the RTs fulfilled their objectives in improving the livelihoods of rural farmers. This paper presents the experiences and lessons learnt from the RTs project particularly in strengthening arguments in favour of national level ICT projects in rural development.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing Research, 2013
In this study, we propose to diagnose facial nerve palsy using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and... more In this study, we propose to diagnose facial nerve palsy using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Emergent Self-Organizing Map (ESOM). This research seeks to analyze facial palsy domain using facial features and grade the degree of nerve damage based on the House-Brackmann score. Traditional diagnostic approaches involve a medical doctor recording a thorough history of a patient and determining the onset of paralysis, rate of progression and so on. The most important step is to assess the degree of voluntary movement of the facial nerves and document the grade of facial paralysis using House-Brackmann score. The significance of the work is the attempt to understand the diagnosis and grading processes using semi-supervised learning with the aim of automating the process. The value of the research is in identifying and documenting the limited literature seen in this area. The use of automated diagnosis and grading greatly reduces the duration of medical examination and increases the consistency, because many palsy images are stored to provide benchmark references for comparative purposes. The proposed automated diagnosis and grading are computationally efficient. This automated process makes it ideal for remote diagnosis and examination of facial palsy. The profiling of a large number of facial images are captured using mobile phones and digital cameras.
Abstract This paper aims to provide clear and appropriate evidence of factors that trigger studen... more Abstract This paper aims to provide clear and appropriate evidence of factors that trigger student engagement of flipped classroom (FC) learning in higher education (HE), based on an example of a fully flipped business undergraduate degree program in Australia. Qualitative data from the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) of 142 first-year business students over seven consecutive trimesters (2017–2019) were gathered and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings provide a nuanced understanding on triggers of student engagement in relation to self-efficacy, emotion, well-being and belonging. The findings may guide educators in full adoption of FC in other undergraduate courses.
Management information systems deliver information—the right information to the right person, in ... more Management information systems deliver information—the right information to the right person, in the right form, at the right time. Such a system is an asset for planning and control. The key determinants for successfully implementing a system are described with reference to commercial banking.
According to UNESCO’s final figures for 2009, since 2000 the number of international students has... more According to UNESCO’s final figures for 2009, since 2000 the number of international students has increased by 75 %. The number of international students in Singapore is also expected to grow at 10 % annual rate reaching 150,000 in 2015. This number of students, according to a government’s foresees, is worth USD 5 billion and contributes to 2 % of GDP. As a result, there are various great opportunities coming up for higher learning education in Singapore. Singapore has become one of the most favourite destinations for international students for higher education; its growth rate is surpassing the traditionally favoured Western countries, such as US. International students have also become an important economic factor. According to former researches related to education, students are usually influenced by the surrounding sources of information as well as their own experiences. Besides, institutional factors such as program type, reputation, location, and facilities are also considered when students choose their higher learning institutes. Other studies also recognized the extreme importance of several country factors such as living condition, and safety that may affect students when they consider a destination for their study abroad. This chapter aims to examine the sources of information that international students in Singapore consider in order to choose Singapore as their study abroad destination. Additionally, the study also compares the importance of country factors and institutional factors. We have surveyed 234 students who are currently studying in Singapore to find out the competitive advantage of Singapore Tertiary Education. The results show that recommendations from friends and teachers have major influence on students’ decision in choosing their schools (higher education) and location of education, followed by country factors, such as personal security. Surprisingly, schools’ promotional activities and agents have limited influence on students’ decision making.
There are still a large number of unbanked people in Indonesia, particularly, in the rural areas.... more There are still a large number of unbanked people in Indonesia, particularly, in the rural areas. Without proper financial services, there can be no economy as banking is essential for any modern economy. Without economy, the livelihood of rural communities will remain poor. One reason for the large number of unbanked population in the rural areas is the cost of opening bank branches for low-income earners. It may not be cost-effective for banks to open branches in rural Indonesia. The number of customers may not be sufficient to cover the operating cost. This paper discusses digital banking services, such as online banking, SMS banking, and mobile banking. These new technologies could reduce the operating costs of banking services and allow the banks to provide financial services in the rural areas. This could potentially help the unbanked population have access to financial services, revitalize their local economy, and eventually improve the livelihood of rural communities, adding to the range of policy instruments to reduce rural poverty in Indonesia.
International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking, 2014
MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and ... more MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and inevitably high operating cost per transaction. To ensure financial viability and to expand the depth and breadth of their operations, MFIs have to adopt cost recovery interest rates on microcredit, hence, MFIs have to charge interest rate high enough, usually substantially higher than the bank loan risk free interest rate. The major factors determining the interest rate on microcredit are the cost of funds, operating costs, loan loss cost and capital for business expansion. To illustrate the impacts of the above factors on interest rate, we present a summary of the current cost structures of microfinance institutes (MFIs) in three Southeast Asia countries, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Then, we review existing studies and propose new uses of mobile technologies and financial market innovations for lowering the interest burden.
Supporting diverse and rapidly changing learning styles of new digital age generations is a major... more Supporting diverse and rapidly changing learning styles of new digital age generations is a major hurdle in the age of massification of education markets. The institutions must now utilize the unprecedented network speed and mobile technology to stimulating learning environments for the new digital age generations. Institutions need to accommodate different learning styles of students often comprising of working professionals, different age groups and students from cultural backgrounds. Researchers have been trying solve these challenges through flexible learning and blended learning approaches. Faced with new digital age generations, unprecedented network speed and mobile technology, researchers now frequently quote mobilized curriculum, social-interaction oriented learning, personalized learning and collaborative mobile learning. This chapter reviews relevant education models, learning styles, literature, and technology to help identify new emerging research problems and research methodologies in m-learning.
MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and ... more MFIs have a high interest rate burden due to the small amount per transaction of microcredit and inevitably high operating cost per transaction. To ensure financial viability and to expand the depth and breadth of their operations, MFIs have to adopt cost recovery interest rates on microcredit, hence, MFIs have to charge interest rate high enough, usually substantially higher than the bank loan risk free interest rate. The major factors determining the interest rate on microcredit are the cost of funds, operating costs, loan loss cost and capital for business expansion. To illustrate the impacts of the above factors on interest rate, we present a summary of the current cost structures of microfinance institutes (MFIs) in three Southeast Asia countries, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Then, we review existing studies and propose new uses of mobile technologies and financial market innovations for lowering the interest burden.
Banking is essential to modern economies and nearly half of the world's people are unbanked a... more Banking is essential to modern economies and nearly half of the world's people are unbanked and underserved by banks. The high operating costs of banks passed on to retail customers are driving them away who otherwise should be in the financial system. Without having access to the financial system the unbanked and rural poor have little means to engage in mainstream economic activities. A mobile phone-based banking system was designed to provide retail banking services to the world's unbanked population and rural poor of 2.2 billion based on a cashless banking system that reduces operating cost and reduces lending risks and therefore can lower the current exorbitant rates charged on retail lending and micro-credit. A core-banking server on a low-cost mobile device (an Android tablet) could serve over 15,000 micro-banking customers. The system definitely appears to be suitable for most retail banks or microfinance institutions.
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Papers by John Vong