The program is aimed at bringing down high telecommunications tariff in the eastern regions of Indonesia, the minister said.
"In 2019, we hope the tariff in eastern part of the country would not be too much higher than in western regions," he said after attending a dialog on the Law on Electronic Infomation and Transactions (ITE) at the University of Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara on Monday.
He said cellular telephone operators think that the cost of building telecommunication facility in eastern regions of Indonesia is much more expensive than in western part of the country.
"We hope when the infrastructure has been available with government subsidy, the tariff would not be far different in all regions of Indonesia," he said .
With the availability of the facility , e-commerce would expand equally all over the country with relatively cheap tariff, he said.
"In 2019, all regencies would have access to internet service, that we could push up development of small and medium enterprises to develop e-commerce," the minister said.
The ministry would team up with community groups, associations and organizations to develop and expand e-commerce, he said.
He predicted that e-commerce would contribute Rp1,500 trillion to the countrys economy in 2010.
"The government has prepared road map of e-commerce and associations would give accreditation," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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