Trade Minister Lutfi Wants The Food Stall Application To Beat Shopee

Minister of Trade, M. Lutfi. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Trade)

JAKARTA - The government is preparing to face the era of digital transformation that has an impact on increasing economic value. Minister of Trade Muhammad Lutfi said that the digital economy can cut the gap between people who have and those who don't.

"A study from ADB shows that the digital economy will erode between those who have and those who don't, the gap between the rich and the poor," he said during the virtual 'Launching of Products with Warung Pangan', Thursday, September 16.

Lutfi said, through the Warung Pangan application, the gap can be narrowed. According to him, this application must be supported because this is a breakthrough made by the Ministry of SOEs. Moreover, with this application, not only customers but also sellers are helped.

"This is a breakthrough from the Ministry of SOEs that we must support because it is not only the customers who are helped but also the sellers and this also provides added value to farmers, business actors whose NTP sometimes gains, mostly loses," he said.

However, said Lutfi, it does not only stop at making applications, but must be supported by developing technological innovations. The goal is that this food stall can compete with other e-commerce such as Shopee and Tokopedia.

"Because we are based on technology, we have to rely on innovation. So we don't have to keep having apps, we have to build technological innovations to be able to compete. So that this orange color can beat other oranges, you know," he explained.

For your information, the contribution of Indonesia's digital economy continues to increase, especially from e-commerce. Based on the Startup Ranking records, the value of digital economy transactions will grow eight times to Rp4,531 trillion in 2030, dominated by the e-commerce sector.

The growth of the digital economy is supported by the increasing number of internet users. According to the APJII survey, Indonesian internet users have reached 202.6 million people since two years ago. Of this figure, 65.1 percent use the internet to access social networks. Generations in the age range of 20-24 years and 25-29 years have penetration rates of more than 80 percent of internet users in Indonesia.