Brunei Darussalam, as ASEAN chairman in 2021, launched the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Advancing Digital Transformation in ASEAN to achieve strategic, inclusive, and long-term digital transformation in the region.
At the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement on Advancing Digital Transformation in ASEAN, Indonesian Communications and Informatics Minister Johnny Gerard Plate emphasised Indonesia’s four-pronged strategy to accelerate digital transformation and develop an ASEAN digital community.
The first strategy entails putting in place an Indonesia Digital Roadmap for the years 2021-2024 as a strategic guide to achieving national digital transformation. The Minister stated that achieving digital transformation requires equal access to high-quality telecommunications services. The government continues to work to create dependable and consistent connectivity to close the digital divide and raise the ratio of Internet connectivity across the country’s regions. Indonesia also supports the creation of a cross-border data flow regulation to ensure that personal data is protected.
Equal access to quality telecommunications services is the precondition for realising digital transformation. We will rise together and recover stronger to realise a digitally connected ASEAN community.
– Johnny Gerard Plate, Communications and Informatics Minister
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s presidency of the 2022 G20 Forum, entitled “Recover Together, Recover Stronger,” focuses on enhancing collaboration in the recovery and resilience against the COVID-19 pandemic using digital technologies. Indonesia has pushed for more intense cooperation among ASEAN states to carry out digital transformation in the area since digitalisation can help the region recover faster and more evenly.
As a result, the focus of the meeting was on enhancing collaboration between sectoral agencies and the ASEAN Community Pillars to accelerate the region’s digital transformation and strengthen cybersecurity cooperation coordinated by the ASEAN Cybersecurity Coordinating Committee, as well as implement the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025.
OpenGov Asia reported that the Ministry of National Development Planning of Indonesia has identified digital transformation as a key pillar that the government must focus on in 2021 to ensure effective public service and governance. One of these areas is the digital transformation which Minister Suharso Monoarfa of the National Development Planning, described in a statement as crucial in meeting increased demand by the citizens for seamless transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the onslaught of the pandemic, global economies have witnessed an acceleration in terms of digital evolution. The new normal became a catalyst for increased velocity to shift to innovative solutions to adapt to a ‘new reality. The Minister added that 2021 will mark the first year for global economic recovery.
In addition, According to Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny G.Plate, Indonesia’s digital transformation focuses on ten priority sectors to accelerate the realisation of digital infrastructure, government, economy, and society. The 10 sectors focused are:
- Digital transportation and tourism
- Digital trade, digital financial services
- Digital media and entertainment
- Digital agriculture and fisheries
- Digital real estate and urban
- Digital education
- Digital health
- Industrial digitisation
- and Government digitisation
He claimed during an online discussion on “Safe Transactions in the Digital Era” and as quoted from a press announcement last month that the government has compiled a Digital Indonesia Roadmap for 2021-2024 as a strategic guide to lead the nation’s digital transformation process. In Indonesia’s ten priority sectors, the roadmap contains 100 essential projects to be implemented in collaboration with all ministries, central and regional authorities, corporate actors, and the public.
The epidemic of coronavirus disease and the 4.0 industrial revolution are two catalysts for the digital transformation agenda. “This momentum can also encourage economic transformation in three main focus areas, specifically economic down streaming, especially in the digital sector, digitising Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and the green economy,” according to Plate.
The Ministry of Communication and Informatics believes that the adoption of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) in 2021 and 2022 will have a favourable influence on the national economy.
