Remarks of President of the Republic of Indonesia at the 2024 Electronic-Based Government System (SPBE) Summit and the Launch of Govtech Indonesia at the State Palace, Jakarta, May 27, 2024
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatulllahi wabarakaatuh.
Good morning,
May peace be upon us all,
Om swastiastu,
Namo Buddhaya,
Greetings of Virtue.
Distinguished Vice President Ma’ruf Amin,
Distinguished Coordinating Ministers and Ministers of the Indonesia Onward Cabinet, Commander of the Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI), Chief of the Indonesian National Police (Polri), Attorney General,
Distinguished Governors, Regents, and Mayors in attendance;
Excellencies Ambassadors of Friendly Countries,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to highlight, to emphasize that bureaucracy should provide public services, and should not complicate and hamper. The benchmark should be the satisfaction of the people, the benefits received by the people, the ease of public services.
But how can it be easier when ministries, agencies, and regional governments have around 27 thousand applications. They are all unintegrated. It’s impossible to facilitate public services. It won’t. They are all unintegrated and instead they overlap.
Thus, like what I had said earlier last January, I would like to reiterate to stop creating new applications this year. Starting this year, stop making new platforms, stop it. There are 27 thousand existing applications. When we checked the budget this year alone, Rp6.2 trillion is allocated to create new applications, build new platforms.
I noticed that in one Ministry there are 500 applications. You can imagine that. Every time there was a new minister, they would create a new application. Every time there was a new director-general, a new application was introduced. The same happened at regional levels; a new governor, a new application. A new head of the department, a new application. It was always project-oriented. That must be stopped. We have to stop it.
In Ministry of Health. How many applications do you have? 400 applications. Can you imagine that? In one ministry, there are 400 applications. I do not want to ask other ministries; I’m sure the figure will be more than that. I noticed that there are also 5,000 applications in one ministry, but I don’t want to show you all. How “creative” you are.
Once again, I noticed that the Ministry of Health has its own applications, tax service uses one application, and educational service uses one application. After creating a new application, a brand-new application will be created. People have to install the new one and fill in the data again and again. How complex it is. That must be stopped.
In order to increase Indonesia’s competitiveness [at the global level], as Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reforms earlier said, we have to enhance our digital public infrastructure. It is like a ‘toll road’ for public service digitalization in our country. We also have to strengthen our GovTech transformation, INA Digital, an integrated platform that provides education services, health services, business permits, tax services, and so on.
It’s just the beginning, and that’s okay. The transformation must be done step by step. The most important thing is starting it. The digital state apparatus must be prepared, and the system must be disseminated, improved, and continued gradually.
Last but not least, I order every ministry/agency and regional government to carry out data integration and interoperability of data and applications. No more excuses like “This data is ours,” “This data belongs to us,” “This is our ministry’s data,” “This is our agency’s data,” “This is my local government’s data.” No more excuses! We won’t progress if we continue to not breaking the silos. So, once again, leave behind old practices and old mindsets.
That concludes my speech on this auspicious occasion. By saying bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I hereby officially launch the GovTech Indonesia INA Digital.
I thank you.
Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
(AP/MMB)