President Jokowi: We Must Protect Indonesia’s Digital Sovereignty

President Jokowi gives a briefing to PPSA XXIV participants and 2023 PPRA LXV alumni of Lemhannas, Wednesday (10/04), at the State Palace, Jakarta. (Photo: Cabinet Secretariat’s Public Relations/Agung)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has said that Indonesia’s digital sovereignty must be protected by safeguarding digital assets and continuing to maintain local products in the digital market.

The President made the statement in his briefing to participants of the Short Education Program of the 24th Class (PPSA XXIV) and alumni of the 2023 Regular Education Program of the 65th Class (PPRA LXV) of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), Wednesday (10/04), at the State Palace, Jakarta.

“We have to protect our digital sovereignty and really defend our local content and local goods. If we still cannot make our goods contain 100 percent local content, then at least 90 percent or 80 percent local content. Take good care of our digital assets, as well as our data, information, market access, everything,” said the President.

The President said that Indonesia has an enormous digital economic potential, reaching US$ 44 billion in 2020, US$ 77 billion in 2022, and is projected to reach US$ 146 billion in 2025 and US$ 360 billion in 2030.

“If we can complete the negotiations on the Digital Economy Framework Agreement in ASEAN by 2025, the latest figure, US$ 360 billion, will be doubled. That means US$ 720 billion. If converted into Rupiah, it is equal to Rp11,250 trillion. So, the economic potential is quite enormous,” said the President.

The Head of State also emphasized the importance of preparing digital talents so that Indonesia will not become only a market in the digital economy.

“We have to be players. Preparing these players really needs hard work because our time is quite limited. My friends said that the time [available to us] is only two years, starting from last year, the middle of last year, only two years. How we can prepare our digital talents is not an easy thing,” he said.

The President also emphasized that Indonesia should become a producer, not just a consumer. Currently, said the President, 123 million people are consumers in the digital market whose 90 percent of goods come from imported goods.

“If we put our own products on e-commerce, it is still good, but 90 percent of the goods are imported because their prices are very low. Even clothes, how much were they sold yesterday? Rp 5 thousand [a piece]. This means that there is predatory pricing. Some people have started to burn money with the main aim of taking full control over data and behavior. We all have to understand this,” he stressed.

The President also reminded all Indonesians not to be exposed to modern colonialism through economic control. Indonesian products must dominate the domestic markets and even foreign markets.

“Thankfully, we can export our products to other countries. No need to go so far, once we dominated ASEAN [market]. Never let ourselves get carried away, in a matter of months, I don’t want ourselves to be exposed to modern era colonialism. Never let ourselves get exposed to colonialism in this modern era. If we stay unaware, we will unexpectedly find ourselves to be already colonized economically,” he said.

Also accompanying the President during the event were, among others, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno, and Governor of the National Resilience Institute Andi Widjajanto. (FID/UN) (TM/MMB)