Airlangga Hartarto Offers Indonesia's Digital Economy Potential To Qualcomm CEO

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto met with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. (photo: ekon.go.id)

JAKARTA – Digitalization which continues to grow rapidly in Indonesia became one of the interesting conversations when Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto met with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. During the meeting on Monday, May 23, the General Chair of the Golkar Party offered Indonesia's digital market, which is the largest in Southeast Asia.

This condition is increasingly tempting because the development of 5G infrastructure and other digitalization potentials continues to improve. Even Airlangga believes that digitalization has developed rapidly in Indonesia. This began with the development of globalization and was driven by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which also accelerated the country's digital transformation process.

"The post-pandemic economic recovery is an opportunity to transform the economy and various socio-economic activities into a digital economy," he said, quoted from the official website of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Monday, May 23.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. (photo: ekon.go.id)

At the regional level, the Asean region is the 3rd largest market in Asia and the 5th largest in the world, as well as one of the most developed integrated markets. In addition, he continued, with a population of 660 million people, Asean has a broad consumer base or the 3rd largest after China and India.

In fact, more than 50 percent of the Asean population is now under the age of 30, which makes up the largest part of the current and future workforce. "With the transformation of a number of investment regulations, Qualcomm can expand its business network to Indonesia, particularly related to the development of 5G infrastructure and other digital sectors in Indonesia," said Airlangga.

Airlangga also stated that in 2021, there will be commercial transactions of more than US$27 billion or equivalent to Rp400 trillion with more than 2,300 startups. This puts Indonesia as the 5th country in the world with the largest number of startup companies.

Airlangga also promoted that Indonesia has 370 million cellular connection users and 204 million internet users (74 percent of the total population). The value of electronic money transactions also exceeded US$2.4 billion or Rp35 trillion as of December 2021.

"Not only that, the level of financial inclusion in 2019 is 76.19 percent and is targeted to reach 90 percent by 2025, then there will be 785 million fintech businesses in 2021," he said.

Coordinating Minister Airlangga and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon discussed the efforts that have been implemented by the government in supporting the digital transformation process, in particular to encourage the business climate and investment in the sector.

Qualcomm, a company that develops semiconductor products and software, and provides wireless technology services, welcomes and provides support and appreciation for a number of digital transformation developments that have been carried out by the government so far. Qualcomm is a company that holds a number of important patents for 5G, 4G, and CDMA cellular communication standards.