How Indonesia is aiming to become ASEAN’s largest digital economy by 2020

As Indonesia’s rapidly growing digital economy promises to deliver benefits for businesses and end-users across the nation, the full impact on each sector, potential challenges to overcome and how it will change the country’s landscape will be discussed at the Indonesia Digital Economy Summit, which forms part of Communic Indonesia and Broadcast Indonesia 2017.

This year’s conference comes at a time of great innovation in Indonesia, with the nation’s government having launched an e-Commerce Roadmap that aims to create 1,000 new tech start-ups. The country is aiming to become ASEAN’s largest digital economy by 2020, with cyber sovereignty seen as a key factor in achieving this target.

Among those hailing the potential of the new digital economy is Hana Abriyansyah, Chief Information Security Officer, PT Midtrans, who will share his view that this new digital ecosystem will lead to cyber sovereignty for Indonesia on a panel titled “Cyber Sovereignty: Should Countries Impose Localized Cyber Laws and Regulations?”

“Indonesia is an emerging technology nation, with the tech startups that have grown over the last decade having a huge impact and creating a vast potential market,” said Abriyansyah. “The Indonesian government needs to support the infrastructure, regulation and education around the subject to ensure that we as a nation are ready for the global trends of digital technology. Cyber sovereignty will help us do this by improving our cyber security, our technological infrastructure and our digital economy.”

Vertical industries such as healthcare will also reap the rewards of the digital economy, according to Freidrik Nainggolan, President Director of PT. Segen Medical Nasional. He will tell delegates that new technologies will deliver great benefits to the industry, making it more patient-centric and saving time and money for healthcare professionals.

“With the number of medical specialists such as radiologists and cardiologists in Indonesia still limited, it is incredibly difficult to provide good quality healthcare services for all, especially those in remote areas,” said Nainggolan. “Telemedicine can improve this level of care, give the patients the service and attention they deserve and save logistical costs for healthcare providers as tasks become more automated.

“The cloud will deliver a particularly great benefit to the Indonesian healthcare system, storing records accessibly and safely for access by the full range of doctors and specialists. It also means healthcare providers can scale services to fit their needs and deliver applications quickly without concerning themselves with underlying infrastructure costs.”

The media industry is also likely to gain from innovation in the digital sector, with Desmond Poon, CTO, PT First Media/Link Net, saying that changes in strategy will improve customer experience.

“With so much content being consumed over an internet connection, the data analytics that are now available can provide broadcasters and service providers with new insights into subscriber viewing behavior,” said Poon. “These can be combined with rich metadata and recommendation engines, which helps improve content discovery and introduces personalized search for the consumer, improving viewing experience and retention. This is also the case with broadband connectivity, where insights into internet traffic and user tendencies can help identify network performance issues.”

Abriyansyah, Nainggolan and Poon will all be speaking at the conference sessions at the Indonesia Digital Economy Summit, part of Communic Indonesia and Broadcast Indonesia 2017, which is hosted by MASTEL and will take place at the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran, in Jakarta, from Wednesday, October 25 to Friday, October 27.

Abriyansyah’s panel “Cyber Sovereignty: Should Countries Impose Localized Cyber Laws and Regulations?” takes place on Thursday, October 26 at 2pm. Poon will feature on the panel “Embracing a Customer-First Strategy: Envisioning the Future of TV”, which is at 9.45am on Thursday, October 26, and Nainggolan will present his case study on “Cloud in the Healthcare Industry” at 1pm on the same day.