Calling The Young Generation To Have An Important Role In Being A Game Changer, Airlangga Describes A Digital Indonesia Map

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto Hartarto (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Active cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia are currently experiencing a downward trend. The momentum of recovery needs to be maintained by the whole community so that Indonesia can get back on track in an effort to get out of the middle income trap and realize the vision of Indonesia Gold 2045. One of the big agendas that is a priority for the government to realize this vision is improving the quality of human resources, especially for the younger generation.

“Indonesian students abroad, who are mostly young people, have an important role as game changers in the future, especially in the digital era. The younger generation in the next 20 years will lead Indonesia. So of course we hope that this young generation will not only become job seekers but can become job creators," said Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto as quoted from the ekon.go.id page, Sunday, September 19.

This was conveyed by Coordinating Minister Airlangga during a webinar commemorating the 14th Anniversary of the World Indonesian Student Union with the title PPI Dunia for Indonesia "PPID Synergy Building the Nation", Friday, September 17.

Acceleration in improving the quality of human resources and economic transformation requires coordination and synergy with all parties. This need is supported by the concept of pentahelix development, in which elements of the government, society or community, academics, businessmen, and the media unite to build togetherness in development.

Currently, the ratio of entrepreneurship in Indonesia is still low, which is 3.47 percent of the total population. Even though in the midst of this digital era, the opportunity to fill the market need for digital talent or start your own digital-based business is very wide open.

Indonesia is estimated to need 9 million digital talents or 600 thousand people per year and the transaction value of Indonesia's digital economy is projected to reach 124 billion dollars or Rp. 1,700 trillion by 2025.

With this great potential, students who are currently studying abroad are also expected to be able to develop their knowledge as high as possible. Simultaneously, business actors and other stakeholders are expected to be able to take advantage of opportunities to develop digitalization more broadly in Indonesia and not only become a target for foreign markets but also be able to become players to be reckoned with at the global level.

The government also provides support for digital talent development through the National Digital Literacy Movement, Digital Talent Scholarship, and the Digital Leadership Academy. These three programs will help develop digital skills from basic to advanced levels. In addition, the Government also continues to encourage the digitization of MSMEs so as to increase MSME productivity.

Indonesia has compiled a Digital Indonesia Roadmap 2021-2024 through benchmarking results against 42 countries. It also determines the targets that must be achieved until 2024, including operating BTS reaching 9,586 BTS, satellite capacity reaching 117 Gbps, data center capable of serving 75 percent of government agencies, and 33,000 MSMEs scaling up with 150 active digital startups and 1 million digital talent scholarship participants.

By implementing the things in the roadmap, it is hoped that by 2024 there will be an additional 1 percent GDP growth, 50 percent digitized MSMEs, 2.5 million new jobs, and 600 thousand digital talents who are trained every year.

These targets can be achieved with innovative technology enablers that create high added value such as drones and robots, unmanned cars, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, big data analysis, cloud, and other technologies.

"Furthermore, on this occasion, I would like to express my appreciation to PPI Dunia, which in its 14 years of age has become a forum that connects all Indonesian students who are studying abroad and at the same time represents Indonesia in contributing positively to the global environment," Airlangga concluded.