President Jokowi Orders New Minister to Prioritize Completion of BTS Projects

President Jokowi Monday (07/17) congratulates Minister of Communications and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi, at the State Palace, Jakarta. (Photo by: PR/Rahmat)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has ordered newly inaugurated Minister of Communications and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi to prioritize the completion of base transceiver station (BTS) construction projects currently undertaken by the Ministry.

“I hope that firstly, the completion of BTS should be prioritized by Ministry of Communications and Informatics. We respect the legal process, but the BTS construction must also continue,” the President said after inaugurating Budi Arie Setiadi as Minister of Communications and Informatics and Nezar Patria as Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatics, at the State Palace, Jakarta, Monday (07/17).

The President underlined that the construction of BTS throughout the country, especially in the frontier, underdeveloped, and outermost (3T) areas is critical to provide digital communication services to the community.

“We do not want any legal incident to happen and even the BTS (project) to be neglected. I don’t want to see this. This is a tough task,” he said.

In addition to resuming the BTS development project, the President also asked Budi Arie to ensure that Indonesia can adapt to the rapidly changing world, especially in the field of information and communication technology (ICT).

“Those related to data sovereignty, artificial intelligence, frequencies, and satellites, all of them can be immediately finalized and completed,” he said.

The President expressed belief that the addition of Nezar Patria, who has a background as a journalist and director of an SOE, as well as part of a task force in the ICT sector, can accelerate the completion of strategic programs at the Ministry in the remaining time of less than one and a half years.  (DND/UN) (FI/MMB)