PROGRES.ID – The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), reaffirms the importance of safeguarding Indonesia’s digital sovereignty by preserving digital assets and maintaining local products in the digital sphere.
The statement was made by the President while addressing participants of the 24th Short Education Program (PPSA) and alumni of the 65th Regular Education Program (PPRA) for the year 2023 at the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) on Wednesday (04/10/2023) at the State Palace in Jakarta.
“We must protect our digital sovereignty and truly maintain what we call local content, local products. If we can’t achieve 100 percent local products, at least 90 percent or 80 percent should be local content. Take good care of our digital assets, protect our data, information, market access, everything,” said the President through the official Presidential website.
The President also revealed that Indonesia has significant potential in the digital economy, with a reach of 44 billion US Dollars in 2020, 77 billion US Dollars in 2022, and a projection to reach 146 billion US Dollars in 2025 and 360 billion US Dollars in 2030.
“If we can successfully conclude negotiations on the Digital Economy Framework Agreement in ASEAN by 2025, as mentioned earlier, the figure of 360 billion US Dollars will double. That means 720 billion US Dollars. When converted to Indonesian Rupiah, the economic potential is enormous, at Rp11,250 trillion,” said the President.
The President also stressed the importance of preparing human resources in the digital field so that Indonesia doesn’t remain merely a consumer in the digital economy.
“We must become players. Preparing these players requires hard work because we are limited by time constraints. My friends have pointed out that we have only two years, from last year, mid-last year, only two years to prepare our digital talents. This is not an easy task,” he emphasized.
The President also called for Indonesia to be a producer, not just a consumer. Currently, the President revealed that 123 million Indonesians are consumers in the digital market, where 90 percent of the goods sold are imports.
“If we put our own products on e-commerce, that’s great, but 90 percent are imported goods because they are very cheap. Even clothing, how much were they sold for? Rp 5,000, Rp 5,000. This means there is predatory pricing; they are already starting to burn money, with the main goal of controlling data and behavior. We must understand all of this,” he asserted.
The President also warned against modern-day colonization through economic control. According to the President, Indonesian products should dominate the domestic market and even the international market.
“We are grateful that we can export to other countries, without going far; we have dominated ASEAN. Don’t let us become complacent; in a matter of months, I don’t want to be subject to modern-era colonization. Don’t let us be subjected to colonialism in this modern era. We are unaware, suddenly we are economically colonized,” he firmly stated.
In this event, the President was accompanied by several high-ranking officials, including the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, State Secretary Pratikno, and Governor of Lemhannas Andi Widjajanto.
