Need A Planned Digital Ecosystem To Build An Algorithm Hill

Algorithm hill place illustration (doc. Between)

JAKARTA - The government continues to formulate plans for the construction of Algorithm Hill in Sukabumi, West Java. Telecommunications expert from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Mohammad Ridwan Effendi, assessed that the plan needs to be preceded by the development of a strong digital ecosystem for such technological areas.

"Of course we need better coordination to build a research and industrial ecosystem. We need a better planned ecosystem," Ridwan said in a technology webinar as quoted by Antara, Thursday, April 22.

He assessed that the discourse to build a "techno park" such as Algorithm Hill has actually been rolling for a long time. In Bandung, West Java, there is already a location for a startup company called Bandung Digital Valley which was initiated by Telkom Indonesia. The ITB campus, said Ridwan, will soon have a similar location.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the Indonesia ICT Institute Heru Sutadi argued that technology areas similar to Silicon Valley already exist in Indonesia, such as the city of Bandung (West Java), Yogyakarta and the Slipi area (West Jakarta), where research centers and technology companies have offices.

Heru sees that from the level of ideas, the plan to build Algorithm Hill is a good thing, however, this technology area will really need a digital technology ecosystem. "Silicon Valley also took a long time to become what it is today," said Heru.

The ecosystem that the experts refer to includes the availability of infrastructure, electricity, data centers, cloud computing locations and data recovery systems. Silicon Valley is considered to have an ecosystem consisting of industry, academia and government support.

"The success, how do they prepare the ecosystem, academics and collaboration with industry," said Heru.

A special area for technology and industrial development in Indonesia is planned to be in Sukabumi, West Java, called Algorithm Hill, which is expected to be like Silicon Valley in California, United States.