In 2024, All Villages Will Be Connected To The Internet

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Expert Staff to the Minister of Inter-Institutional Relations, Kemendesa PDTT Samsul Widodo said that making an internet connection capable of penetrating to villages throughout Indonesia is not an easy task. There are many challenges and obstacles to overcome.

"Indonesia consists of 74,961 villages, so 74,961 villages from Sabang to Merauke are on small islands, in the middle of the sea, some are on top of the mountains, some are also in the middle of the forest," he said in a webinar initiated by BAKTI Kominfo with the theme "Utilization of ICT for Social and Business", quoted Wednesday, August 25.

However, Samsul ensured that the government would continue to make efforts to provide internet connection access. The government targets all villages to have access to the internet by 2024.

"Currently we are facing a triple disruption, namely digital disruption, millennial disruption and pandemic disruption. This digital disruption has happened for 15 years, with millennials everything has changed," he said.

He continued that the existence of a pandemic disruption had never imagined that village heads could hold meetings directly with the village minister and the minister of the interior via zoom. Then when the millennial generation appears, a new idea is formed, namely the stay at home economy.

"Utilization of the internet is very extreme, which is up to five times as much as before. The largest use of internet access in Indonesia is currently for social media, WhatsApp, games, financial applications and online shopping applications," he said.

According to him, there is huge potential in online shopping application platforms that village people can use to onboard and market their products.

"80 percent of people in the village currently work in the agricultural sector, during the pandemic the agricultural sector is one sector that has never dropped. Actually, village funds can be used to install internet connections. But the key is still having village meetings," he said.