Jokowi Visits Silicon Valley; Inspiration for Indonesia's Digital Economy
During Indonesian President Joko Widodo's visit to Googleplex, Silicon Valley (California) - headquarters of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Plug and Play - he emphasized that the government of Indonesia is committed to push for the development of the digital economy, aiming to make it the largest in Southeast Asia, worth USD $130 billion by 2020 (including the emergence of 1,000 Indonesian technopreneurs). In this context, Widodo also requested the assistance of Google, Facebook and Plug and Play in the form of IT development education.
Part of Indonesia's push for development of the digital economy involves the recently designed e-commerce roadmap. This roadmap stipulates regulations regarding online trading of goods and services as well as online data and fund transfer. Previously, Indonesia had not orderly regulated the e-commerce industry hence there emerged turmoil and confusion when smartphone transportation apps such as Go-Jek (an app for two-wheeled taxis in Indonesia), Uber or Grab Taxi Indonesia entered the Indonesian market last year.
Indonesia's e-commerce roadmap addresses a number of key issues such as guidelines for logistics services, financing for start-ups (here startup platform Plug and Play could contribute), consumer protection, communication infrastructure, e-commerce business tax, education, and cyber security.
The Indonesian E-commerce Association (idEA) expects the nation's expanding middle class to become increasingly used to online shopping. The number of Indonesian online shoppers is estimated to reach 10 million in 2016, spending a total of up to IDR 20 trillion (approx. USD $1.5 billion).
President Joko Widodo - often called Jokowi - was able to visit Silicon Valley on Wednesday 17 February 2016 after participating in the two-day US-ASEAN Summit in California which ended on Tuesday (16/02). Here he met Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey as well as Plug and Play CEO and founder Saeed Amidi. Jokowi also played a game of zero-gravity ping-pong on virtual-reality headset Oculus Rift with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Indonesia's seventh president also met 39 Indonesians who work for Google at Silicon Valley.