"Digitalization in Indonesia, especially in the social aid sector, needs more efforts to be put into it. (This is) because what we imagine, what we perceived, it is not as good in practice (in comparison with the initial idea)," he stated during the Indonesian Digital Economic and Finance Festival in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Monday.
During a session led by Governor of Bank of Indonesia Perry Warjiyo, Effendy, who attended the event through virtual means, stated that among the issues in the development of social aid allocation digitalization were the supporting infrastructure.
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"For some areas, it can be mapped (in terms of the) geospatial (aspects). To be honest, (even) without naming names, we know which places," he remarked.
Although he did not explicitly mention the areas with the said lacking facilities, he did highlight that in 34 districts in Papua and West Papua, social aid was still disbursed through the conservative method of cash being sent via postal services.
"(It is) because (supporting) infrastructures for non-cash (transactions) were not ready in these areas," he pointed out.
Effendy also highlighted the people's lack of digital technology literacy as the contributing issue to the entire problem.
He deemed coordination between ministries as being important in the adoption of a digital system in social aid allocation. They could support by providing a regulation or legal basis to it.
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"Such infrastructure and regulation would support innovation and simplification of the social aid allocation model through the digital (platform)," he noted.
"The strategy (of digitalization) would depend on coordination between ministries. Without good coordination, digital social aid (supposed to be) targeted (in an effective and efficient manner) will not occur," Effendy added.
Effendy was optimistic that the initiative could be done despite the odds. According to data of the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2022, Indonesia had 204 million internet users, 63 percent of which already used cellular phones.
"(In such a condition,) supposedly, we can conduct this digitalization for the social aid (sector)," he added.
The Indonesian Digital Economic and Finance Festival was a side event of G20, in which the Finance Minister, Governor of the G20 Central Bank, as well as Deputy of Finance and G20 Central Bank met for the third time, in the event scheduled from July 11 to July 17, 2022, in Bali.
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Translator: Genta T M, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2022
