Indonesia seeks Estonian expertise to boost digital governance

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia has explored opportunities to collaborate with Estonia on governance reform initiatives, focusing on optimizing digital technology.

Deputy Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Purwadi Arianto highlighted avenues for cooperation during a meeting with Estonian Ambassador Veikko Kala in Jakarta on Thursday, June 4.

“Estonia’s experience is very relevant to this matter, given the country’s digital success in institutional reform, interoperability, and people-centered service designs,” he said, as quoted in a statement on Friday.

He noted that Indonesia views digital transformation as integral to bureaucratic reform, intending to redesign governance schemes, business processes, personnel management, and public service implementation.

Similar to Estonia, he added, Indonesia positions digital public infrastructure at the core of efforts to provide integrated public services oriented toward people’s needs.

Arianto highlighted Indonesia’s push to advance digital identity, data exchanges, and digital payments, reflecting confidence in technology’s role in boosting governance effectiveness and efficiency.

He noted that among the government’s key objectives is tailoring public services to milestones such as birth, education, occupation, health, marriage, business, and retirement, shifting away from an institution-centered approach.

“Learning from Estonia’s experience, our goal is to provide integrated and personalized services that simplify citizen-government interactions and comprehensively improve the service experience,” he stated.

The deputy minister emphasized that Indonesia could work with Estonia to strengthen governance while addressing obstacles such as its vast territory, large population, and disparities in digital literacy, infrastructure, and institutional capacity.

“Rather than merely replicating Estonia’s models, Indonesia aims to gain practical insights, institutional knowledge, and support for capacity enhancements to accelerate digital transformation and the governance reform agenda,” Arianto explained.

He identified room for bilateral cooperation in three broad areas: benchmarking and knowledge exchange on digital governance, public sector innovation, and personnel management; capacity-building programs; and policy consultation aimed at achieving people-centered service.

“These areas offer practical opportunities to strengthen our partnership and accelerate public sector transformation. We are looking forward to a productive and sustainable partnership between the two countries,” he concluded.

Ambassador Kala highlighted Estonia’s 25 years of government digitalization, noting that 99 percent of its public services are fully digitalized.

He explained that total digitalization enables Estonians to access public services around the clock online using only a digital ID, without visiting administrative buildings.

The envoy also voiced Estonia’s readiness to assist Indonesia in identifying concrete solutions for government digitalization efforts.

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Translator: Fianda S, Tegar Nurfitra

Editor: Arie Novarina

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