Finnish Entrepreneurs Visit IKN, Explore Smart City Technology Investment Potential

Finnish Entrepreneurs shake hands with Deputy for Funding and Investment Agung Wicaksono. Photo: Doc. OIKN

JAKARTA - The Finnish Embassy for Indonesia together with Business Finland visited the capital city of Nusantara (IKN), East Kalimantan, recently. The visit was carried out in order to see examples of smart pole technology and other smart city technology in the archipelago.

Ambassador to Indonesia, Timor Leste and ASEAN Pekka Kaihilahti together with a team from Business Finland, had the opportunity to see firsthand the IKN development. The group had the opportunity to see the technology to be presented at IKN, including the Proof of Concept (POC) Smart Pole at the Tekno Nusantara House.

In addition, the group also visited the PSSI Training Center, State Palace and Plaza Ceremony. The activity continued with discussions that took place at the MSKM Gallery. Pekka hopes that the relationship and collaboration between Indonesia and Finland can be stronger.

"The main goal of this visit is that we want to work with the IKN Authority in developing smart cities and we have the best expertise, experience and application in terms of smart cities and we want to share all of that with Indonesia," Pekka said as quoted from his official statement, Friday, January 17.

Similarly, Deputy for Funding and Investment Agung Wicaksono said, IKN has a vision 2045 as a world city for all.

Agung said that Indonesia has many partners and Finland is the country with the highest happiness index in the world and extraordinary technology.

"Therefore, the POC Smart Pole which is held by the Deputy for Green and Digital Transformation from the technical aspect is supported by the Deputy for Funding and Investment from the investment and commercial aspects," he said.

Agung said that IKN has now generated an economy of IDR 58 trillion, including foreign investment. According to him, it is not impossible that there will be more investment from Finland which brings smart city technology.

"There are quite a lot of letter of intent (LoI) from European countries. One of them is from Finland, there are four LoIs and one of them has also been signed by the MoU. Hopefully, this MoU can produce realization, so that investment will continue to increase in IKN, especially foreign investment," he said.

This visit is a follow-up to the MoU of the IKN Authority with the Finnish Ministry of Economics in January 2024. Also attending this activity was the EU delegation,missionz Patel and Acting Director General of Human Settlements of the Ministry of Public Works (PU) Endra S. Atmawidjaja.