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2018 has been a year of technological breakthroughs and developments across the IT world. The highs of this period aren’t limited to the private sector. The Australian Institute of Health & Welfare has had its share of big wins, challenges, and is ready for more digital transformation in the new year.
The Man with the Data
OpenGov Asia had a chance to speak to Geoff Neideck, Group Head, Data Strategies and IT, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. In what he calls, “a very interesting role”, he gives us an inside look as to how his organisation has progressed and where they are investing in for 2019.
Geoff describes the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare as a major information and data agency. Housing a repository of data, it helps stakeholders get a national picture of health and welfare issues and topics. Government, researchers, policymakers and the community can access the information to inform themselves about healthcare and welfare issues, as well as start a conversation around the data.
As Group Head, Geoff has the combined duties of a Chief Data Officer and a Chief Information Officer. Hence, he oversees the organisation’s IT functions as well as its data strategies to support the needs of itself and its many stakeholders.
2018 In Review
With such a dynamic role, it comes as no surprise that the Institute has a good number of technology projects under its belt. Although many are a work in progress, Geoff begins by sharing a meaningful one – the Veterans’ Health and Welfare Program.
“It’s very important to our current and former Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel,” explains Geoff. “[The program] reports on their health and welfare and looks to address information and knowledge gaps to improve the evidence base. Looking at suicide rates for current and former ADF personnel has been a recent focus in response to ongoing concern within the ADF and the Australian community. We gathered information from the partnering agencies, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and Defence, combined with the mortality data maintained by the AIHW…It supports a very important public policy issue in terms of how we support our veterans.”
Between 2017-2018, Australia’s Department of Veteran Affairs reported that mental health and suicide prevention ranked high on its list of priorities. Monies were pledged to improve the delivery of mental health support to the overall welfare of veterans and ex-personnel through a series of policies.
The data linked and analysed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare will provide tangible benefits for the veteran community.
Given the impact data can have to improve citizen’s lives, Geoff says, “As a data agency, it is important to quality assure the data that we have. One of the recent activities we have undertaken is to develop a data validation tool which basically provides a data edit engine, data validation and data assurance processes.”
The tool generates reports and diagnostics to make improvements to the dataset. Using the information provided, quality information can be used in tandem with the commentary the agency publishes in their reports.
“In the same sphere, we are also looking at applying machine learning techniques at the point of integrating data into the organisation, and validating and preparing it for analysis,” Geoff shares.
Its application is to assist in the process of cleaning the huge sets of data. The machine learning aims to identify duplicate records, gaps in the data, and provide diagnostic information. Any manipulation which needs to be done will help improve the quality of data for research and government policy analysis.
However, the Australian Institute of Health & Welfare does not do the heavy lifting alone. The size of the organisation is a constraint on the number of experienced staff it can retain. Other agencies, such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and consultants collaborate with them to provide assistance to projects his team undertakes. Presently, they are recruiting individuals with advanced data science skills to support the multiple projects they are undertaking.
Challenges
This leads us nicely to what Geoff thinks is one of the biggest challenges the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare faces – plugging a talent gap.
“It’s quite a challenge finding the right people with the skills and techniques we need. Particularly, getting people who have applied techniques in the area we are in – government administrative and statistical data,” explains Geoff.
Generally, people who have good data science skills would make the cut. However, what his agency is really looking for are people with a healthcare or administrative data background.
“We often work with quite disparate datasets and bring them together to form the analytics datasets we use. It is about understanding the types of analysis our data is used for. Obviously, some of the analysis we want to support is looking at rare diseases and disease clusters. Within our data, this might require a spatial analysis to identify particular areas where there are higher levels of particular diseases or health outcomes, especially adverse ones,” adds Geoff. “It is really about how we can develop the datasets for these particular analyses, in the health and welfare sphere.”
Like other organisations in the public sector, data governance and security are a major challenge his organisation wrestles with, but ones in which they have over 30 years’ experience in. Geoff is cognisant that Australian citizens need to be assured that their data is used well through his organisation’s statistical collection and analysis. The goals of policy must be achieved while protecting the interest of citizens. It is a fine balanced which must be struck.
2019 Forecast: Cloud
In the horizons, the agency is working on a cloud strategy. For now, some activities have already been moved to the cloud, such as certain outward facing work, says Geoff. Some development work is also cloud-based.
“But we’re looking at other activities we can put into the cloud. We’re working in line with the Australian Government policy around public data and deployment into the cloud,” shared Geoff.
Another project they are looking at is the nature of accessing data. Geoff says the way people want to see data is changing. Traditionally, hardcopy publications with tables and graphs were the norm of this agency. Moving forward, Geoff and his team are looking at considerably more web-based output. Hence, data visualisation will become more important for his team.
Apart from acquiring the tools from Tableau, they are grooming the necessary talents to apply the technology. Close to 200 of their staff have been actively using data visualisation in their reports. Already, more than a thousand visualisation dashboards are available on their website. However, he believes more can be done to democratise the access of the agency’s valuable data.
In the year to come, Geoff and his team will continue to work closely with other government agencies to bounce ideas, tap on their experience, and deliver better results for the Australian community.


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The Land Transport Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025 was unveiled by Minister of Transport S Iswaran. Developed by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in close collaboration with industry and union partners, the updated Land Transport ITM aims to create a sustainable and resilient land transport sector, a workforce that is future-ready, and a thriving ecosystem.
The Land Transport ITM 2025 will assist the industry in overcoming the immediate challenges of labour shortages and decarbonisation. It aims to accomplish three strategic outcomes, including A Future-Ready Workforce, A Sustainable and Resilient Land Transport Sector, and A Reliable and Cost-Effective Transport System through Innovation and Technology.
“Talent development and skills upgrading for workers remain key to the land transport sector’s transformation and resilience,” says Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport and Co-Chair of the Future Economy Council (FEC) Connectivity Cluster. The LTA is collaborating with public transportation operators and unions to prepare workers for new challenges, ensuring that the workforce remains productive and future-ready.
The land transport industry, a critical pillar in enabling connectivity that supports the economy, can only do so thanks to the efforts of its employees. With over 100,000 employees, the workers perform a variety of roles such as bus captains, bus mechanics, customer service officers, railway engineers, station managers, and point-to-point (P2P) drivers.
The nature of work will also change as technology and digitalisation advance. As a result, under the revised ITM, the LTA will collaborate with the National Transport Workers Union (NTWU) and public transportation operators to train rail workers to use new and emerging technologies such as data and statistical analytics, as well as condition monitoring, to increase efficiency and productivity.
Since 2020, the Rail Manpower Development Incentive has helped over 2,900 workers improve their skills. Faults, for example, can be detected and physical checks reduced using video monitoring and image analysis.
Additionally, they are gradually enhancing the skills of their bus captains and technicians to operate electric buses. To create appropriate training programmes on cleaner energy buses for the bus workforce, the Singapore Bus Academy (SGBA) has been collaborating with pertinent stakeholders, including bus suppliers, Institutes of Higher Learning, NTWU, and bus operators.
To prepare the workforce to support Singapore’s push for vehicle electrification, LTA will also keep up its close collaboration with partners in the private transportation sector, such as tertiary institutions. Also, LTA will keep urging commuters to use public transportation or active transportation options under Walk Cycle Ride. By enhancing the infrastructure for EV charging and fortifying the EV regulatory framework, LTA is also encouraging greater adoption of EVs.
To increase the effectiveness of the land transportation system, industry and academic partners will use an open innovation strategy to draw on outside ideas. This includes decentralising data and working with others to develop creative solutions that will improve operational procedures and promote environmental sustainability.
To simplify outreach to industry partners, the LTA introduced the Land Transport Innovation Portal in September 2022 as a one-stop shop for all innovation-related issues. To assist partners in better understanding LTA’s requirements and identifying opportunities for co-innovation and collaboration, the portal disseminates operational problem statements from LTA as well as details on upcoming innovation events.
Additionally, it points potential innovators to the LTA DataMall’s data resources, which include over 130 static and dynamic datasets as well as a newly expanded catalogue of “On-Request Datasets” in an effort to spur more original ideas that can meet the needs of the land transportation industry.
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President Jokowi stressed the need for constant innovation for ministries, agencies and regional governments to speed up services. Rising public expectations will be challenging to achieve without creative problem-solving.
Abdullah Azwar Anas, Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB) said that new ideas are essential to enhancing the standard of government services. However, Anas emphasised that creating a new application for every breakthrough is unnecessary. Since there are presently over 27,000 applications for various public services from several government organisations, they have already been developed.
“It’s encouraging to see the government adopting new approaches to delivering services to make life easier for its constituents. But a new app development effort is not mandatory. No longer is there a ‘one invention, one use’,” he said when inaugurating the 2023 Public Service Innovation Competition (KIPP) Launch.
According to Anas, innovation should simplify people’s lives, not make them more difficult. Minister Anas has stated that integration and interoperability are essential in the future. Both are following the plans of the SPBE Electronic-Based Government System, as directed by President Joko Widodo. Single sign-on at digital public service malls (MPP) is a step towards simplifying all kinds of processes.
“In other words, gone are the days when locals seeking service A first downloaded app A, then manually created account A by entering extensive personal information. Accessing Service B requires using Application B; if you don’t already have a Service B account, you must make one and enter your information again. As well as the others. The populace is in disarray with thousands of service applications today,” he noted.
Furthermore, the government has carried out a digital transformation of public services using artificial intelligence to give convenient services to the community (AI). Diah Natalisa, Deputy for Public Services at the Ministry of Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB), has emphasised the importance of digital services and how they improve the efficiency and accessibility of government programmes.
Diah explained that the Indonesian National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2020-2045 has already been formed. It identifies five priority sectors with promising prospects for AI’s advancement, application, and exploitation. Artificial intelligence innovations are first used in the healthcare industry to improve response times, increase patient numbers served, and lower overall healthcare costs.
Patients can allegedly access medical care via telemedicine without physically going to a clinic or doctor’s office. In addition, there are various ways to employ AI in the realm of bureaucratic reform, such as creating ChatBots that can provide 24-hour, two-way dialogue with the general public.
Meanwhile, Diah argued that the potential for the future growth of artificial intelligence would lead to precision learning in education. Learners’ routine actions are considered with their mental and emotional faculties and physical abilities.
Then, artificial intelligence can be applied to satellite photos in food security to determine which locations have access to electricity and which do not. It’s been theorised that this hypothetical can also be used to catalogue the crops cultivated in a particular region and forecast the yield of each crop.
AI will also help the future of transportation and intelligent urban planning. Diah presented the example of using AI for smart traffic management solutions to guarantee locals’ safe and efficient movement from one place to another.
The Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform is developing the Public Service Portal. The portal system’s AI will be optimised to predict and fulfil each user’s needs based on their unique traits.
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The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in the Philippines and the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao aim to educate the public about the benefits and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in a variety of fields.
The country has recognised that AI is one of the technologies that is starting to change the way businesses and organisations work. Because AI has so many uses, it is starting to be utilised in many different areas, and its full potential is being realised and used in many markets. Hence, businesses and organisations in the Philippines are starting to pay attention to the benefits of this.
During the recent “1st AI Pinas Research and Development (R&D) Conference and Workshop 2023,” over one hundred participants, including local and international speakers, discussed the benefits of machine learning, natural language processing, robotics, computer vision, and deep learning applied to health, education, mobility, the environment, disaster risk reduction (DRR), industries, and smart and sustainable cities and communities.
Renato Solidum Jr, DOST Secretary acknowledged that AI has the potential to increase human productivity by automating routine tasks, analysing massive amounts of data, learning new information, and making well-informed decisions.
He added that they focused on the four investment pillars, and as a result, DOST has pledged financial support for the Philippines’ rapid scientific development in this area so that the nation can fully benefit from AI technologies.
Secretary Renato confirmed that the DOST has been collaborating with multiple stakeholders to make the AI R&D framework for 2019–2029 beneficial for its intended beneficiaries. The framework focuses on building a national infrastructure, which includes:
- AI R&D centres;
- Empowering more professionals through DOST-PCIEERD training and development; and
- Encouraging more mission-driven programmes with unique applications.
He has emphasised that the Philippines are also enhancing its workforce’s capabilities. In collaboration with the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), the Analytics Association of the Philippines (AAP), and an open online course provider, three (3) AI Pinas training have produced 143 graduates.
Through the Smarter Philippines and R&D, Training, and Adoption (SPARTA) project, he hopes to upskill and launch the data science careers of the nation’s workforce as they aim to have 50,000 Filipino data scientists by 2029 to meet the needs and demands of the industry as they undergo digital transformation.
Dr Lyre Anni Murao, Chancellor of UP Mindanao, on the other hand, urged the use of AI to help with daily tasks, stating that AI should be given more credit for improving the quality of life and strengthening the capacity to contribute to global development.
On the other hand, Dr Enrico C. Paringit, Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD), stated that the “AI for Better Normal” investments, made possible in June 2021, have put them at the forefront of using AI to advance innovation in the country, as they have supported impactful AI projects across the country.
DOST-PCIEERD, as a leader and partner in enabling innovations in the Philippines, ensures that it strengthens local capabilities in the region. Initiatives like this strengthen ties with more developed countries and foster new collaborations that can spur future socioeconomic growth.
The event themed “Artificial Intelligence Driving Transformation and Impact in the Digital Age,” provided a forum for experts, researchers, professionals, enthusiasts, and prospective beneficiaries to update the R&D roadmap and develop a national AI R&D programme.
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A significant partnership between a leading Victorian university and a top global hospital is poised to elevate MedTech breakthroughs and contribute to the enhancement of healthcare. The Minister for Industry and Innovation, Ben Carroll, witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Monash University and Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. The MoU aims to foster research and development of more inclusive healthcare systems and MedTech manufacturing prospects in Victoria.
The Australian government will provide approximately AU$ 200,000 to Monash University’s Victorian Heart Institute in support of the MoU. The funding will facilitate access to cutting-edge technology, accelerate the adoption of new treatments for cardiovascular diseases, and help combat one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide.
The largest university in Australia, Monash University earned the title of the world’s best in Pharmacy and Pharmacology in 2022, becoming the first Australian institution to achieve this distinction. Meanwhile, Sheba Medical Centre acknowledged as one of the top hospitals globally has gained expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), robotic surgery, digital imaging and telemedicine. These capabilities were established through its in-house innovation hub.
This partnership is anticipated to improve the delivery of healthcare in Victoria and create opportunities for local companies to generate employment in MedTech research, manufacturing, and export.
Australia has extended support to various significant MedTech initiatives, including the Australian Medtech Manufacturing Centre (AU$20 million), mRNA Victoria, and MedTech startups through LaunchVic and the Breakthrough Victoria Fund. Victoria’s MedTech sector contributes AU$ 21.4 billion in revenue, AU$ 3.5 billion in exports and sustains around 31,400 jobs.
The Minister for Industry and Innovation expressed his approval of the partnership between Monash University and Sheba Medical Center, citing its potential to attract more investment to Victoria’s MedTech sector and enhance healthcare for Victorians.
The Minister for Health remarked that partnering with a global leader in digital health innovation such as Sheba Medical Center presents an excellent opportunity for Victoria.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Monash University highlighted the institution’s history of translating research into practical applications, underscoring that the partnership is another step towards improving health outcomes through the integration of research and translation.
The Director-General of Sheba Medical Centre stated that that the partnership aims to advance healthcare and promote economic growth while shifting the future of medicine towards prevention.
The Medical Technology market is expected to generate revenue of approximately US$579.40 billion by 2023. The largest segment of the market is Medical Devices, which is projected to reach a market volume of US$470.60 billion in 2023. Despite a regression in revenues in 2020 due to decreased routine medical treatments apart from COVID-19 treatments, the market has bounced back strongly in 2021. The market is expected to exhibit an annual growth rate of 4.91% between 2023-2027, resulting in a market volume of US$701.90 billion by 2027.
The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and the emphasis on early diagnosis and treatment by healthcare agencies are among the factors driving growth in the medical technology market. The Medical Technology market is essential to the healthcare sector, with a focus on diagnosing and treating health problems, conducting genetic research and improving physical mobility. Its multifunctional usage and health improvement attributes make it a key player in the industry with steady growth.
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A developer of robotic applications and systems based in Hong Kong has announced the release of ARCS, a Robotic Control System developed in-house and powered by cloud technology from a multinational technology corporation based in the United States.
The company is a member of Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Corporation’s Leading Enterprises Acceleration Programme (LEAP) and has received full support from HKSTP. This has enabled them to establish their office and a state-of-the-art automated warehouse, called the RobEX Centre, within the campus.
In recent years, work automation has become increasingly popular. The widespread use of robots in our daily lives has made it possible to free up human labour through highly efficient execution abilities. However, there has been a lack of agnostic platforms to coordinate and control robots of different brands, functions, and systems, which has prevented our robots from creating synergy in the most efficient way possible.
Furthermore, there is an urgent need for society to proactively explore alternative approaches to maximising the potential of robots, especially with intensifying community issues such as an ageing population and declining birth rates, which further widen the local workforce gap. This could greatly elevate our quality of life, particularly for those with lower self-care ability, such as the elderly and the sick.
Moreover, with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) subjects becoming more prominent, organisations are increasing their investments in sustainability and environmental research to find solutions that can boost energy efficiency through robotic technologies.
The HKSTP company is dedicated to developing a range of robotic solutions that address specific challenges, with the ultimate aim of integrating these technologies into daily life and supporting various sectors such as healthcare, smart city, logistics, and education.
With a vision to transform Hong Kong into a smart city, the company developed ARCS. Today, ARCS has been implemented in the fields of rehabilitation and healthcare, offering more autonomous and sophisticated care services, while also alleviating the workload of healthcare professionals through the assistance of smart technologies.
ARCS offers more than just improved efficiency and cost savings for enterprises and organisations. Its distinctive feature of centralised management streamlines the process of data management and analysis, resolving the isolation deadlock of different types of robots.
In the near future, ARCS will integrate artificial intelligence to cater to different scenarios, create the most suitable application plans, and provide tailor-made suggestions derived from the analysis of environmental data collected by robots. This will take the sustainability performance of corporations and organisations to the next level.
During the press conference, the company demonstrated a series of collaborative tasks performed by robots managed by ARCS in three simulated scenes. The first scenario applies to the retail and catering industry: when a store receives an online order, ARCS immediately obtains data from elevators and turnstiles through the Internet of Things (IoT) and delivers the product to the customer using a managed robot.
The second scene is suitable for public places with heavier traffic, such as malls and hospitals. When a patrol robot detects a mass gathering, ARCS can coordinate and send the concierge robot with its camera open for a live stream. This helps users to have a better understanding of the incident with minimised reaction time, while simultaneously instructing the patrol robot to resume its original task.
The third scene is designed for people with disabilities in various public venues. ARCS remotely controls the wheelchair robot, allowing one or a group of robots to safely carry those in need to their destinations.
Additionally, the company showcased the use of ARCS to analyse centralised data, illustrating the system’s capability to streamline the data collection and analysis process, as well as its great potential to incorporate the use of business intelligence.
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In Australia’s upcoming renewable energy landscape, there will be fresh prospects for cooperation between electricity networks and retailers to assist customers in optimising the potential of their own energy resources.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), acting on behalf of the government, has revealed that it will grant AU$1.02 million to SA Power Networks along with two energy companies to collaborate on creating and testing retailer solar management offers that are capable of functioning alongside the flexible connection offers of electricity networks (also known as ‘dynamic operating envelopes’). The aim is to provide customers with Consumer Energy Resources and a smooth and seamless experience.
Despite rooftop solar being the biggest source of energy generation in South Australia, the majority of systems are not capable of reacting to market signals. However, energy companies are striving to transform this by introducing innovative offers that incentivise customers to make their solar power responsive to pricing signals in the wholesale energy market.
The primary objective of the AU$ 2.1 million project is to facilitate the development of an integrated design for the new customer offers and SA Power Networks’ Flexible Export connections for rooftop solar. The rollout of this integration will begin in July 2023 as a standard service offering.
The integration of flexible export connections with innovative retail market offers is intended to optimise customers’ market participation opportunities while maintaining power flows within the technical limits of the network. This approach could potentially be expanded in the future to support other “behind-the-meter” equipment, such as batteries and electric vehicles.
Should the solutions developed prove effective, they could be adopted by other states within the National Electricity Market, thereby potentially unlocking wholesale market and network benefits.
Demand and generation flexibility present opportunities to lower energy costs, regulate peak and minimum demand, and shift energy loads to times when renewable energy is most abundant. This flexibility can be put into action in real-time, as a response to market signals, generation shortages, or network limitations.
According to the CEO of ARENA, intelligent management of rooftop solar has the potential to serve as a long-term solution for accommodating the growing influx of renewable energy into the market. He added that the project undertaken by SA Power Networks is a targeted and limited trial that will aid in shaping the development of future mechanisms for managing rooftop solar PV and other energy assets owned by customers.
According to the latest statistics from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water In the year 2020-21, renewable energy sources constituted 8% of Australia’s total energy consumption. While the production of renewable electricity has more than doubled over the last ten years, the combustion of biomass such as firewood and bagasse (the leftover pulp from sugar cane crushing) accounts for just under 40% (38%) of Australia’s overall renewable energy consumption.
In the year 2021, 29% of Australia’s overall electricity generation was derived from renewable energy sources, which comprised solar (12%), wind (10%) and hydro (6%). This represented the highest percentage of renewables in the country’s total electricity generation to date, with the previous record of 26% having been set in the mid-1960s.
Over the past decade, solar and wind power have been the primary forces behind the expansion of renewable generation, with their output having more than doubled. Small-scale solar generation saw a growth of 29% in 2021 and an average of 28% per year over the last 10 years. Wind generation, on the other hand, grew by 19% in 2021 and by an average of 15% per year over the last decade. In contrast, hydropower output has remained relatively consistent, subject to fluctuations due to rainfall and market conditions, and has decreased in importance as other sources of generation have diversified.
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Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga acknowledges that Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs) digitalisation is an essential part of promoting Indonesia’s digital economy. The number of digitised MSMEs reached 20,997,131, an increase of 17% from the previous year. Data from 2022 shows that the total value of e-commerce transactions in Indonesia amounted to IDR 476.3 trillion, up 18.7% from the last year on a volume of 3.48 million.
He argued that strong cooperation between the federal government, regional governments, and the private sector was necessary to digitise MSMEs successfully. The commercial electronic industry from digitised MSME successfully pushed for a clear path forward.
It was reported that in 2022, the value of online sales grew by 26% from 2021, and the number of new online traders using digital platforms grew by 6% thanks to events like National Online Shopping Day (Harbolnas). The value of transactions involving locally produced goods was IDR 10 trillion, an increase of IDR 1.5 trillion, or 18%, over Harbolnas 2021, when the value of locally produced goods sold was IDR 8.5 trillion.
“Cashless payments are one of the concrete proofs of the implementation of digitalisation in the commerce sector in the market undertaken by the Ministry of Trade,” said Jerry in an Education Digitalisation of Markets, Stalls, and MSMEs discussion in Malang City, East Java.
Therefore, the Ministry of Trade supports collaboration in developing an e-commerce ecosystem. Given the enormous development potential of the digital economy, the ministry has prepared four pillars with various stakeholders.
The first pillar is that MSMEs are adaptable, creative, and motivated to grow. To increase the value of goods and supply chain efficiency and distribution to consumers, marketplaces (marketplaces) work in synergy with MSMEs through a series of capacity building, prioritising goods aggregation activities like repackaging, management assistance, and other similar endeavours.
The third pillar, contemporary retail’s function, connects MSMEs with potential business partners. In today’s modern retail environment, MSMEs can get the local products they need. Financial institutions provide the People’s Business Credit (KUR) plan as part of the fourth pillar.
To foster an environment conducive to the development of new MSMEs, the Ministry of Trade will continue to boost the contribution of trade through the electronic system by providing regulatory assistance and guidance for business.
“Collaboration, teamwork, and digital adaption are essential to overcome the current difficulties in international trade. We believe that by working together, we can advance the digital ecosystem in Indonesia, which will benefit the economy and people at all levels of society,” Jerry says.
Jerry confirmed that they are expanding the potential for creative and digital products. For example, at the Malang Creative Center, the government has a programme to aid in developing novel products. This year, the industry emphasises developing handcrafted goods like clothing, movies, comics, and games and services for consumers to use in stores.
He explained that these items were chosen because they met a need in the market for handmade items inspired by popular culture among today’s youth (specifically, animation, comics, and gaming, abbreviated “ACG”).
Intellectual property (IP) in the form of character or product patents is an export category in the ACG industry. As an illustration, consider the prevalence of product marketing featuring Marvel or Disney characters. Intellectual property is vital to expanding the ACG industry’s export capabilities and ensuring the sector’s long-term financial viability. That’s because the impact of IP on other industries will be multiplied.