President Jokowi: Regulation on Digital Transformation Must Be More Holistic

(President Jokowi at the Opening of the 25th PWI Congress 2023, at the State Palace in Jakarta, Monday (09/25). (Photo: Cabinet Secretariat’s Public Relations /Oji)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo emphasized that a big regulatory umbrella concerning digital transformation must be made more holistically so that this transformation can create new potential and will not erode the existing economy.

The President made the statement in his remarks at the Opening of the 25th Congress of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) 2023, at the State Palace in Jakarta, Monday (25/09).

“This broad regulatory umbrella concerning digital transformation must be made more holistically and this is what the Government is working on so that technological development – as both we and our society hope for – can create new economic potential, not killing the existing economy, nor eroding it,” said the President.

In addition to anticipating rapid technological progress, this regulation is also expected to serve as a legal umbrella for affected industries such as creative industries and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

“Creative industries must be protected, our MSMEs must be protected from the onslaught of this digital world,” he said.

The President revealed that the Government had just decided on a regulation concerning social commerce which has a big impact on MSMEs in the country due to delays in regulations.

“We have just had a limited meeting to decide on social media to be used for e-commerce. Tomorrow [the regulation] might be released, because the impact is really very powerful. We are only a few months late, but the effects are already everywhere,” he said.

Furthermore, the President emphasized that the development of the digital world cannot be stopped. The President gave the example of artificial intelligence (AI), which is currently increasingly developing into generative artificial intelligence.

“The laws and the regulations always come late, so that they are always preceded by new things. While we haven’t yet finished learning about something, generative artificial intelligence has already emerged, what else is this, we haven’t yet finished learning about something. That’s AI today,” he stressed. (TGH/UN) (TM/MUR)