Minister pushes to retain digital economic value within Indonesia

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid underscored the critical need for Indonesia to harness its digital growth into tangible domestic economic strength, rather than letting the financial value leak to offshore digital platforms.

Speaking at an economic conference in Jakarta on Wednesday, Meutya pointed out that while various regions across the archipelago have successfully accelerated their digital economies, the actual economic value frequently flows to digital platforms based outside those regions.

"So, large numbers do not automatically mean greater power. Therefore, in Indonesia, we are thinking about how to turn this growth into real power through two specific approaches," she stated.

The minister explained that the two approaches comprise value retention and the distribution of economic value.

This strategy aims to ensure a fairer distribution of digital wealth so that the returns remain anchored within domestic digital infrastructure and the local real economy instead of being monopolized by global tech corporations.

"Simply put, we want to retain more of the results of what we build. This is in line with President Prabowo's vision, which emphasizes the importance of keeping more economic value within the country," she remarked.

The second approach is productivity spillover, which dictates that digital growth must actively elevate the productivity of traditional, real economic sectors rather than just scaling the digital platforms themselves.

Meutya cited an example where fishermen should be able to utilize digital applications to sell their catch directly to consumer markets, thereby securing higher profits for the same amount of labor.

"This is the real goal. Platform growth is not the final goal. The real strength is economic value that remains within the country and productivity that spreads to all sectors of the real economy," she emphasized.

The minister acknowledged that over the past decade, Southeast Asia has made significant strides in digital connectivity by expanding network infrastructure, increasing device accessibility, and integrating hundreds of millions of people into the digital ecosystem.

Meutya concluded that Indonesia holds a highly strategic position to capitalize on this regional momentum.

The country boasts a population of approximately 281 million people—constituting nearly 40 percent of the ASEAN market—with 186 million citizens of working age.

Backed by a stable gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of around 5 percent and membership in the G20, Indonesia successfully attracted US$55 billion in foreign direct investment in 2024.

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Translator: Sri Dewi Larasati, Yashinta Difa

Editor: Azis Kurmala

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