"(It) turns out (that) we have 27 thousand apps from this entire government structure. Those are owned by many vendors. Now, I say that there are many young junior IT professionals. Let us show that Indonesians are great by integrating these apps," he stated at the Electronic-Based Government System Summit 2023 accessed here on Monday.
He believes that Indonesians can pursue such feat without high costs. The minister cited the PeduliLindungi app that was successfully developed during the pandemic.
"I was informed by Mr Anas (Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Abdullah Azwar Anas) that there are many great young people in Indonesia that make apps in ministries, institutions, regional governments, and such. Let us work. No need for expensive costs, as I believe it can be done. Very sure because of the experience with COVID-19 last time," he remarked.
Pandjaitan also affirmed that digitalization was one of the national economic pillars apart from downstreaming, village funding, and commodity prices, all of which will support Indonesia's progress towards advancement.
He drew attention to the success of the e-catalog program by the Goods and Services Procurement Agency (LKPP).
Pandjaitan noted that the transaction potential for the government goods and services' procurement was valued at Rp1,600 trillion (US$104.15 billion). Some 90 percent of the transaction value was generated from the purchase of imported products. The government is consistently pushing for domestic products' purchases in meeting the goal so as to ensure national economic growth.
According to the ministry's records, realization of the 2022 domestic products' purchases by ministries, institutions, governments, as well as state companies, was capped at Rp698.68 trillion (US$45.5 billion), thereby amounting to 69.78 percent of the targeted Rp1,001.26 trillion (US$65.2 billion).
The government aims for 95 percent of the targeted domestic products' purchase to be met and for five million domestic products to appear in the e-catalogue.
He stressed that efficiency, through ecosystem digitization, can reduce corruption as well as rouse people's creativity to conduct innovations.
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Translator: Ade Irma Juanda, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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