President Jokowi Congratulates Go-Jek for Becoming Indonesia’s First Decacorn

President Jokowi attends a gathering with Go-Jek driver partners at Ecovention Ancol, Jakarta, Thursday (11/4) (Photo by: Public Relations Division/Oji)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has congratulated ride-hailing app Go-Jek for becoming Indonesia’s first decacorn after its valuation hit US$10 billion according to research institution CB Insights, in its Global Unicorn Club report.

“Undeniably, digital economy gives a big hope for our economic growth in the future. We know that in 2018 the portion of digital economy already reached US$27 billion,” the President said during a gathering with Go-Jek partners in Ancol, North Jakarta, Thursday (11/4).

According to the President, digital economy has also opened up opportunities for micro, small, and medium enterprises (UMKM) players in Indonesia to further develop as ‘offline ecosystem’ and ‘online ecosystem’ has now been integrated.

“Take Go-Jek for example. It can’t be like it is today without support from millions of its UMKM players, driver partners, and millions of workers behind the production of UMKMs  that we have,” the President said.

Another example, the President added, is more than 5,000 traditional food stalls and warteg (a food stall that specifically serves Javanese food) that are now connected with digital platform wahyoo.com through which the owners can order raw ingredients every day, get training, and even access to capital.

“(There is) also Halosis that helps more than 3,000 Indonesian UMKMs dominated by housewives who sell their goods online by providing virtual assistant supported by digital technology and Artificial Intelligence,” he said. 

President Jokowi also cited another example of woven crafts made by thousands of women in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province marketed through digital platform Du’Anyam in the United States, Denmark, and Belgium on both web platform and mobile platform.

All those examples, the President added, prove that digital technology has brought many benefits for the people. Therefore, President Jokowi stressed that Indonesians must not be shackled by old technologies.

“Wahyoo, Helosis, and Du’Anyam are examples of the works of our youths who work hard and combine digital technology with creativity to create business valuation worth tens of billions of Rupiahs,” he said.

The President went on to say that it is time for Indonesia’s startups to penetrate regional and global market and Go-Jek has successfully achieved this. (HIM/EN)

Translated by: Muhammad Ersan Pamungkas