With the inaugural launch of BASE in Singapore and Malaysia (April 2016) as well as subsequently in China (August 2016) and Korea (November 2016), Cloudera continues to expand the initative with the latest addition of Indonesia at Big Data Week Jakarta on March 23 2017.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communication, KOMINFO, Mr. Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan (above) who delivered the opening address at Big Data Week Jakarta, said,
“The excitement and eagerness of the attendees is very evident – this is very important as emerging economies have a chance to compete on the world stage if they can embrace the challenges of big data quickly.” Designed to bolster Indonesia’s Smart City initatives and to strategically fill the skilled data professionals gap in the market, BASE enables industry players, government stakeholders, and academic institutions to collectively educate and support more professionals with the necessary skills in big data analytics. The initiative also incorporates job placement firms that work to match trained data professionals with positions across sectors where their skills are required.
At the official press conference of the launch of BASE in Indonesia, Mr. Daniel Ng, Cloudera’s Senior Director, APAC and the Father of BASE, explained: “Through BASE, we bring together public and private sector organisations to work with the big data community and educate, train, collaborate and employ big data professionals. There are a total of 16 BASE partners who will join us for the initiative and it is, to date, our biggest BASE launch across the Asia Pacific region.”
During the Q & A session from the media, a question was posed to Mr. Ng about why the BASE initiative took so long to establish in Indonesia. Mr. Ng replied that it takes time to build an ecosystem for the training of data professionals – in fact, the work behind building BASE in Indonesia took about 6 months before the official launch and the launch is at a ripe time given Indonesia’s burgeoning interest and maturity in the big data field.
Another key aspect in the development of data professionals in Indonesia is working out the definition and qualifications of data scientists, as well as setting targets – as an estimate benchmark, Malaysia had set a target to produce 20,000 data professionals by 2020. The Indonesia government is in the process of setting these targets and also working out a plan for data professionals in the industry.
Mr. Ng (above photo) was also keen to point out that while Cloudera has launched the BASE initiative in Indonesia, it is not just what the company can do for the Indonesian economy but rather what the local and international partnerships within the BASE ecosystem can offer and serve the Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) in Indonesia, which forms 98% of the local economy.
Mr. Fajar Jaman, Founder, Data Science Indonesia, one of the 16 partners of the BASE intiative in Indonesia, commented: “At DSI (Data Science Indonesia), we believe that the data and analytics skills represent a competitive advantage for businesses in Indonesia. As such, we are committed to building a data-driven culture and ecosystem based on three pillars: education, socialisation and advocacy on data science. We are grateful to partner with Cloudera on this brilliant BASE initiative as ite enables us to fulfil these and help Indonesian professionals grow and stay competitive globally. Together, we will build a community of data professionals who are ready for the digital economy and jobs of the future.”
Given the huge turnout and enthusiasm at Big Data Week Jakarta 2017 and the promising outcomes of what the BASE initiative can achieve in the big data ecosystem and eventually helping the local economy, Indonesia looks poised to embrace the big data revolution and be empowered to digitally transform itself, both in the public and private sectors.
