President Joko Widodo: Indonesia's Digital Economy is in the Lead among Southeast Asian Countries

JAKARTADAILY.ID – Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi Widodo said that the current rapid growth of the digital economy has made Indonesia the country with the highest digital economy in Southeast Asia.

Jokowi said the potential of the digital economy in Indonesia jumped eight times from around Rp 632 trillion in 2020 to Rp 4,531 trillion later in 2030.

Meanwhile, Indonesian startups are among the sixth highest in the world, after the United States, India, Britain, Canada, and Australia.

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"That means the opportunity is huge. This is an opportunity, ladies and gentlemen, especially the young ones because internet users in Indonesia have reached 77 percent ... and use 8 hours 36 minutes every day," said President Jokowi when opening BUMN Startup Day, at ICE BSD City, Tangerang Regency, Banten, Monday, September 26, 2022.

Jokowi emphasized that startup founders should pay attention to market needs because the majority of startups do not succeed because they do not match the needs of the market.

"(As many as) 80 percent to 90 percent of startups fail when pioneering because once again they do not see the existing market needs. They should be based on what the existing market needs are. The second is also due to running out of funds, this will later function as venture capital, the function of SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) so that the large ecosystem that we want to build can be interconnected so that everything is properly accompanied and cannot fail to enter markets, to opportunities that exist in our country," concluded the President.

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SOE Minister Erick Thohir said that the BUMN Startup Day event was an event to introduce and bring BUMN leaders closer to startup founders.

"We ask SOEs not to invest directly but there must be assistance with venture capitals in SOEs because we don't want SOE directors who have no experience in the digital industry to invest directly without any assistance because we try to keep this really there is continuity,” explained Erick.

The event, which was attended by 150 exhibitors, 250 startups, and 22 SOEs, opened many opportunities ranging from business matching to exhibitions. Erick said that this is a support for technological progress in the country.

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“There are five core businesses from BUMN Startup Day; there is business matching, investor pitching, startup rapid mentoring, and of course conferences, and of course what we can see is exhibitions," he concluded.