Indonesia's Digital Economy Potential Hinges on Equal Internet Access

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stressed the need for distributing equal digital infrastructure in the country to maximize the potential of the digital economy.

Sri Mulyani said that currently 12,000 villages across the country still have no access to the internet.

“This (digital economy potential) cannot achieve any concrete results if the necessary conditions are not developed,” Sri Mulyani told participants of the Indonesia Fintech Summit in 2020 held virtually on Wednesday, November 11.

Also read: Indonesia’s Digital Divide Limits Reach of Service Delivery, Says Sri Mulyani

She further added that the results of Google Tamasek’s research in 2019 stated that Indonesia’s digital economy would triple from $40 billion to $133 billion by 2025.

In the e-commerce sector, she said, it will grow $82 billion or increases fourfold. The online traveling sector will double, from $10 billion to $20 billion.

As for the media sector, it is projected to increase from $3.5 billion to $9 billion, while the ride-hailing industry will increase threefold from $5.7 billion to $18 billion.

Also read: Government Gets Free Internet Worth $2 million for 500 Hospitals in Indonesia during Covid-19

“So there will be no more frontier, outermost and disadvantaged regions,” said Sri Mulyani.
To do so, the government has allocated a budget of 30 trillion rupiahs ($2.1 billion) to develop information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure in 2021.

The budget, among others, will be used to build base transceiver station (BTS) towers in more than 5,000 villages out of the total number of villages with no internet service.

“We develop the internet in more than 12,000 public service locations. We are also building a national data center, updating data, including those who will receive social assistance,” the minister said, adding that the government is also digitizing the education sector. 

(Writer: Mutia Fauzia | Editor: Ambaranie Nadia Kemala Movanita)

Source: https://money.kompas.com/read/2020/11/11/181549726/sri-mulyani-potensi-ekonomi-digital-tak-konkret-jika-akses-internet-tak-merata.