Huawei bolsters Indonesia’s trailblazing towards greater contribution future digital Asia Pacific

Singapore (ANTARA) - As the largest economy in ASEAN and the sixth-largest in Asia Pacific region, Indonesia is expected to make an impact on the future development of digital innovation and digital economy in the region. Its synergy and collaboration with the entire ecosystem partners, especially with the world’s leading ICT provider Huawei, would ensure its fast lane towards digitalization, top Indonesian officials have said during the Huawei APAC Digital Innovation Congress 2022, themed “Innovation for a Digital Asia Pacific.”

Among the representatives from the Indonesian Government at the conference were Dr. Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Dr. Eng. Budi Prawara, Chairman of Research Organization for Electronics and Informatics, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Vice Marshall Arif Mustofa, Deputy VII overseeing the Coordination for Communication, Information and Apparatuses, Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs. Over 1,500 government officials, researchers, and ICT industry thought-leaders from more than 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region explore the future of digital innovation and digital economy in the two-day conference, jointly organized by Huawei and the ASEAN Foundation.

In his keynote speech, Dr. Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy underscored Indonesia’s enormous potential in the digital economy thanks to the country’s 205 million internet users as well as 190 million active social media users out of the 278 million in its total population.

“Currently, the digital economy contributes to Indonesia’s economic growth by 70 billion US dollars. It is predicted [the figure] to increase by 146 billion USD by 2025,” Minister Sandiaga said.

According to him, the Indonesian government has earmarked Rp500 trillion for numerous job-creation programs as part of its measures to create 2 million jobs and therefore contribute to jacking up the economic growth by 2 percent.

“I hope through this collaboration and partnership with Huawei, we can strengthen Asia Pacific digital ecosystem,” Minister Sandiaga asserted, adding, “All stakeholders should work together, synergize and give support to accelerate digital transformation, not only in Indonesia but also in the Asia Pacific region.”

Last month, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Huawei as part of joint efforts to accelerate economic recovery, scale up the competence of digital talents, and prompt businesses towards the revival of Indonesia’s tourism and digital economy as the backbone of the economy and locomotive for economic advances.

Voicing a similar view with Minister Sandiaga, Dr. Eng. Budi Prawara, Chairman of Research Organization for Electronics and Informatics, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), underlined that synergy among the ecosystem is of paramount importance.

”Our future world will be defined by how effective and efficient we enhance, intensify and strengthen research and innovation collaboration. In Indonesia, we have been closely collaborating with all key stakeholders, especially global technology and innovation leader Huawei since 2020, in the AI-related knowledge sharing in line with the National AI Strategy development. We hope to continue forging a common understanding across the ecosystem to optimize benefits from the world research and innovation for humanity and society.”

Meanwhile, Jacky Chen, CEO of Huawei Indonesia said that digitalization has accelerated transformation in all sectors in Indonesia and Huawei is and will always be fully committed to supporting the ecosystem in digital advances.

“In line with its “I Do” commitment, Huawei wants to contribute more to the country as we have been part of Indonesia. We will consistently contribute to creating values to build a fully connected, 5G-oriented, more intelligent, digital, green and wonderful Indonesia,” said Jacky.

Under the commitment, Huawei has nurtured over 58 thousand digital talents from its target of 100 thousand until 2025.

Indonesia needs 600 thousand digital talents each year to fulfill industry demand, including those to provide certified talents to supply the rapid growth of 5 thousand startups by 2024.

On the sidelines of the congress, Vice Marshall Arif Mustofa, Deputy VII overseeing the Coordination for Communication, Information and Apparatuses, Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, said,”Under the directive of President Joko Widodo, the acceleration of digital transformation and the expansion of the national communication network for the public has been placed on top of the priority program. Those chief programs lay the foundation for the country to progress by leaps and bounds in line with the National Digital Transformation Road Map.

Arif emphasized, “The success of the priority projects will hinge on support from all ecosystem partners, including government and industries. Therefore, I appreciate Huawei’s continued support and long-term commitment to facilitating Indonesia’s efforts to drive digitalization and forge ahead with transformation, especially through enhancement in regulation, policy, and standardization of digital infrastructure and network.”