Luhut Admits He Got A New Task From Jokowi, What Is It?

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs (Instagram/@luhut.pandjaitan).

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, admitted that he had received a new assignment from the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

This task is related to the acceleration of government digital services, which are listed in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 82 of 2023.

Luhut said the Presidential Decree was issued to unite the government system electronically based. One of these is done to support the accuracy of Government data.

"The president gave me a new task to coordinate the acceleration of government digitization in related ministries and institutions so that we have accurate data."

"Actually, how many of our employees do we have, maybe we don't know exactly. What kind of social assistance do people have to get, poverty, and so on," said Luhut in a video description on his official Instagram account @luhut.pandjaitan, quoted on Saturday, January 13, 2024.

With this system, Luhut believes tax withdrawals will also increase. In addition, the Government can also detect directly about tax data effectively.

"We can immediately detect or there is a blocking system running, which if he has not met the existing requirements, he cannot leave the export of his goods or he is forced to pay the debt, if there is a debt that occurs," he said.

He assessed that so far almost all ministries have applications. The data has 2,000 applications in each ministry and institution. Luhut emphasized that this number will be effective.

"Now we want to just reduce the expenditure, which may be trillions of rupiah per year, does not need to be available and can be used for others," he said.

In addition, Luhut admitted that he was ordered directly by Jokowi to coordinate ministries and institutions so that they would immediately enter the digital system. According to the plan, this program can be completed in July or August 2024.

"Well, the President asked me to coordinate all ministries/agencies to enter this system immediately. We hope that July or August 2024 will be completed," he said.

Furthermore, said Luhut, his party and the Ministry of Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform (Kemenpan RB) have also been working and coordinating.

He said the Government would later use Peruri as the manager of the application. Peruri will also be restructured so that it can manage digital applications.

"If this happens, yes, our trajectory for 2030 can be 10,000 US dollars income per capita. Now we see inflation is below three percent. Then, we see foreign exchange reserves of 140 billion US dollars. That has never been in the history of 43 months we trade surplus," said Luhut.

"I think that will be achieved more and more, it will be steady. So, later whoever will be Pak Jokowi's successor, Pak Jokowi has built a system that will make this country even better," he added.