JAKARTA: In the near future, digital technology will deeply influence the country’s development, said Rudy Salahuddin, an official from the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister.

For that purpose, the government has vowed to issue or revise at least five regulations related to the sector. They are a government regulation on eCommerce, a personal data protection Bill and a tax office regulation on the eCommerce tax.

“The utilisation of digital technology will be nationwide,” Rudy, who is the undersecretary for the creative economy, entrepreneurship and SME competitiveness said in a recent discussion.

“This requires a more comprehensive strategy in preparing Indonesia’s development in the era of digitalisation.”

His view is in line with a new report on Indonesia’s digital technology industry, which says the sector will become the largest supporter of the country’s economy by 2030 by helping conventional industries open market access online.

The report, which was carried out by AlphaBeta, the Hinrich Foundation and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), estimates that the digital trade sector could create 2.3 quadrillion rupiah (RM700bil) worth of economic opportunities by 2030 for the domestic economy alone.

The report titled The Digital Komodo Dragon: How Indonesia can capture the digital trade opportunity at home and abroad, said the figure was equivalent to 9% of Indonesia’s projected gross domestic product.

Rudy said the draft regulation on eCommerce had been in the government’s pipeline since 2015. However, its issuance had been delayed due to significant changes in the industry, thus constantly making the points in the draft irrelevant.

AlphaBeta associate Genevieve Lim, who was involved in the report, said its projection comprised several sectors that could benefit from digital trade, such as agriculture and food, education and training, consumer goods and retail, infrastructure, resources, financial services, manufacturing and health.

Digital exports, she said, were expected to grow by a whopping 768% to 240 trillion rupiah (RM69.5bil) by 2030 from 28 trillion rupiah (RM8.1bil) two years ago, provided that Indonesia and its trade partners were willing to reduce barriers related to digital trade.

“Digital trade could help businesses … identify and enter new markets easily,” Lim said earlier this week.

“(Physical) market identification used to be costly and risky, but now all an enterprise has to do is register through any existing (digital market) platform and begin selling.” — The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2019/02/22/indonesia-aims-to-be-tech-hub-govt-to-improve-regulatory-framework-related-to-digital-economy/#IWkbvqcbqWmGY4Vr.99