WikiFX Visited PTFX in Indonesia
The field-survey mission to Jakarta came as
a surprise. I had to forget about holiday schedules and set out before sunrise
to catch the earliest flight. I knew that visiting PTFX in the capital of
Indonesia wasn’t going to be easy, but my 4-day trip turned out to be even more
adventurous than I expected.
My itinerary:
April 6th
Shanghai——Hong Kong——Jakarta
April 7th PTFX(Jakarta)
April 8th PTFX(Jakarta)
April 10th OJK ( Jakarta)——Shanghai
The plane took off from Pudong Airport at
6AM. Throughout the flight, I kept thinking about all the possible scenarios
and how I may handle them.
The plane landed in Jakarta at 8PM after
flying for 14 hours. Eager to start on my mission, plus to stretch my sore
Iimbs after the long flight, I dashed off the plane and took this snapshot of a completely empty
lobby before it was flooded by passengers only seconds later.
I took a cab to my hotel. The cab service
was cheap, but the traffic was a total nightmare. Cars and motorcycles jammed
the road in such a chaos that my cab took one and a half hours to go just 20
kilometers. By the time I reached the hotel, it was already passed ten, and my
survey started early the next morning.
Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is a
beautiful place that blends the fashionable style of an international
megalopolis with the elegance of historical sites, local cuisines and
traditional Javanese culture. Looking from high above, you’d see cottages
sprinkled among skyscrapers, while magnificent hotels and high-tech centers
stand next to bustling villages. To some extent, the city is an epitome of
Indonesia itself.
With 12 million residents and 12 million
motorcycles on the road alongside vehicles, it’s not hard to picture the poor
traffic situation in Jakarta. But much to my surprise, the streets were crowded
with people without a single car or motorcycle in sight when I walked out of
the hotel on Sunday morning, and I couldn’t help wondering what was going on!
Later I found out (well, I Googled) that no
motor vehicles are allowed in the street from 6~11AM every Sunday morning, and
most businesses are closed as well. It’s a great chance for people to take a
break from the busy everyday life and enjoy this relaxing moment. I suddenly
thought of how big cities like Shanghai seems to never slow down, not even for
a second. Here you can feel the peaceful joy simply standing in the crowd, and
it’s certainly a very pleasant feeling.
The parades and mule carts on Sunday
morning is a unique sight in Jakarta.
 |
| People enjoying themselves at the street concert with electronic music |
By 11AM, the crowd eventually melted away as people returned to their daily business. The street got busy again with cars and pedestrians, and I resumed my field survey mission. Unfortunately the building was closed on Sunday, so the first day was quite unproductive.
The next morning I got there early. A
security staff checked the inside of my car and the trunk before letting me
enter the building. Then, there was another security check like those in the
subway. I told the reception lady that I came here for PTFX, and she asked me
to wait there while she made a call. After she hung up, the receptionist
refused my request.
I tried to find out what the problem was
and why I wasn’t allowed to visit PTFX, but the receptionist simply turned me
down without any explanation. Eventually I concluded that I’ve reached a dead
end, and had to come up with some other ideas if I wanted to fulfill my task.
First I tried to take the cargo lift, but
was stopped by another security staff, who told me to register at the reception
first.
So I had to return to where I’ve started,
and began wandering around the building in search of an alternative path. But
pretty soon I realized that the security was looking at me suspiciously, so I
decided I should perhaps just call it a day. Back to the hotel, I sketched a
layout of the building and thought hard for a feasible plan. I figured that
pretending the staff of another company at the same level is unlikely to fool
the receptionist. Therefore I decided to bypass the reception by going from the
underground parking.
I was right. No one stopped me at the
underground parking and I took the elevator to the level where PTFX was
located. However, my little victory didn’t last for 1 minute——as soon as I was
out of the elevator, two PTFX staffs popped up and questioned in a very
unfriendly manner that why I was there. I pretended to have come for another
company, but the two seemed unconvinced and remain very watchful about my every
move, tailing me as I wandered around.
Though I didn’t feel like quitting, I did
feel very nervous, even scared, especially when they forced me to leave and
threatened to call the securities. Not wanting to get into any serious trouble,
I had no choice but to go downstairs.
I felt that I was just one step away from
victory and there’s noway to give up, so I waited for a chance. At around 7PM,
it was getting dark. I thought perhaps the staffs had pretty much all gone, and
set out once again. But I was unlucky enough to bump right into two PTFX staffs
who were just off work. Seeing they were different from the two staffs I saw
the morning, I pulled up my old excuse and pretended to be looking around for
some other company. But these two guys kept following me. I was so nervous that
my legs were getting shaky and it seemed hard to mind where I was actually
going.
Much to my delight, I found a Chinese
company, COOEC. After circling half of the level, I rushed into their office
and had a 10-20 minutes with them for escaping from the PTFX guys’ sight.
Finally, I reluctantly decided to leave as the two PTFX staff were still there.
But I just wasn’t about to give up though
it was a tough work! Thus I stuck around and carefully watched until I was
quite sure that the building was empty and the staff all gone. At around 9AM, I
decided to give one last shot, and finally managed to walk to the front door of
PTFX’s office for a closer look.
Looking through the glass doors, the office
with around 100m2 area was divided into two halves. The working area on the
left had just a dozen of seats, while the right side was simply a wall
decorated with dubious certifications. It seems that the company’s actual size
and competitiveness doesn’t match its own descriptions, which gave me some
ideas of what the company is really like (and perhaps why the staff tried to
stop me from approaching the company office by all means).
The next morning, I visited Indonesia’s
Financial Services Authority OJK to find out more about PTFX’s regulatory
status. This is a governmental regulator of the country’s financial service
industry that has both administrative departments and general public
consultations area.
When I told the official at the
administrative section that I came to survey PTFX as the representative of
WikiFX, a Forex search platform, he agreed that China’s finance and Forex
sector are booming in recent years, and he’d love to see more Chinese firms
make investment or apply for regulation in Indonesia. A staff then gave me a
registration receipt and redirected me to the public consultation section.
The staff at the public consultation
section gave me a warm welcome, and told me that PTFX was not in regulation,
which further supported my previous findings at the company.
With that, I concluded my trip to Jakarta
and was ready to fly back home.
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