IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

The island of Bali, which is known for its beaches and is a popular holiday destination, now has been enhanced with 5G services through Indosat Ooredoo Hutchinson (IOH). The mobile network operator launched the service in line with Indonesia’s digital transformation plans.

Bali is now the sixth city in Indonesia whereby IOH has launched 5G services. The other five cities are Surakarta, Jakarta, Surabaya, Makassar, and Balikpapan.

Jakarta is hosting a meeting of ASEAN city leaders in 2023. It is hoped that this agenda will be a forum for exchanging good experiences in managing urban issues.

Heads of regions from cities in ASEAN member countries shared their best practice experiences and worked together to support sustainable city development. Five issues emerged in a meeting titled "Meeting of Governors and Mayors of ASEAN Capitals & ASEAN Mayors Forum 2023" or MGMAC & AMF 2023.

Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Laksana Tri Handoko remarked that Indonesia already has a National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2020-2045, which is a milestone for AI application in Indonesia. In the future, this is projected to have a positive impact on the Indonesian economy. The National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, according to Laksana, is an endeavour by the Indonesian government to improve the usage of cutting-edge technology, particularly AI. These activities are aimed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness across a variety of industries. BRIN also promotes AI mastery for use in a variety of strategic areas.

Two ministries have called for the better use of information technology in the Indonesian bureaucracy as many countries with well-managed e-governments have improved their quality of public services.

“(E-government) should stop being just an idea. No more theories, no more comparative studies. We should start practising it,” Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Asman Abnur said this week.

As BiometricUpdate.com has previously mentioned, Indonesia committed US$600 million to provide a national identity card to all of its 172 million residents. The Asian nation has introduced a new eID credential to replace all existing identity cards. The cards, entitled Kartu Tanda Penduduk Elektronik, or e-KTP for short, will be used for voter registration, passport issuance, tax payments and to verify identity for social assistance.

Accelerating digital transformation is among the priority programs in the information and communication technology (ICT) field, as targeted by President Joko Widodo during his second term, stated Philip Gobang, communication and informatics minister’s special staff.

"Five areas elicit attention in managing digital transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic," Gobang remarked while addressing a webinar and workshop on "Encouraging the Creation and Innovation of Flobamora MSMEs" organized in Maumere, Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, on Saturday.

Indonesia, as the ASEAN Smart City Network (ASCN) shepherd, has strengthened partnerships across stakeholders, including the community, to realize smart, resilient, and sustainable cities.

"Collaboration involving the public and private sectors, as the wider stakeholders, through ASCN and other relevant platforms can bring better solutions for smart city development," the Home Ministry's director general of regional administration development, Amran, said, according to a press statement issued here on Friday.

Officials from the Domestic Policy Strategy Agency (BSKDN) of the Home Affairs Ministry embarked on a visit to South Korea to learn how to improve the implementation of smart governance at the national level.

BSKDN head Yusharto Huntoyungo informed that the official visit is a strategic step aimed at exploring innovation and best practices pertaining to smart government implemented by the South Korean government.

The Authority of Indonesia’s new Capital City of Nusantara (OIKN) is set to launch the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) Command Centre in its fifth wave of groundbreaking on February 29 and March 1.

OIKN spokesperson Troy Pantouw said on February 26 that the IKN Command Centre can operate immediately after the launch. There will be a visual view of the physical development of the situation and an analysis of the input from the media.

The Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) Ministry ensured that development of the new capitalNusantara in East Kalimantan would achieve the three main targets of forestcity, 10-minute city for pedestrians, and future-smart city.

"We will exert our efforts (to develop the new capital) in that direction, as we need to realise the key performance indicator (KPI) that has been set in the master plan," the ministry's Director General of Human Settlements, Diana Kusumastuti, stated here, Monday.

• Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia, is seeing its AI startup ecosystem hit the maturity curve in the aftermath of the pandemic

Over the last two decades, Indonesia’s startup economy has really come into its own, but its artificial intelligence (AI) startups have only started gaining wider attention this year.

Fitness centres around the world have closed their doors due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Even as some states plan to reopen businesses, including health clubs, the protocols for social distancing are likely to remain, forcing owners of fitness businesses that will soon reopen or those that must remain closed for the time being to consider two options: go digital or possibly disappear.

The good news is that forward-thinking fitness professionals have long used digital tools to engage with members outside of brick-and-mortar locations. The number of digital fitness tools available to help health club operators deliver and monetise digital fitness content has also recently increased.

A recent study of 18 to 30 year olds conducted by Ooredoo, the Qatar-based parent company of telecommunications service provider Indosat, looks at the digital attitudes and aspirations of Indonesia’s youth, a group that comprises half the country’s nearly 250 million people.

My E.G. Services Bhd (MyEG), through wholly owned sub-subsidiary My EG (Indonesia) Sdn Bhd, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding on investing in the leading e-government services provider in Indonesia, PT Cartenz Technology Indonesia, marking the group’s entry into the e-government space there.

The partnership, subject to the fulfilment of certain terms and conditions, will entail an investment by MyEG of US$10 million (RM41.9 million) for up to a 40% interest. Further, MyEG and Cartenz will jointly implement real-time monitoring of business transactions for tax computation purposes across Indonesia.

The Indonesian government is currently working on the development of Indonesia’s new capital city Nusantara as one of its big strategies to achieve the 2045 Golden Indonesia vision.

The 2015-2085 Indonesian Dream emphasizes the importance of this country's human resources, whose intelligence surpasses that of other nations, and the need for Indonesia to become a barometer of world economic growth.

As the fourth-most populous country globally with a large working-age population, Indonesia has tremendous potential to gain from the development of the digital economy. Enhancing the digital literacy of its citizens and strengthening the digital skills of its labour are two pillars to enable the country to achieve more inclusive digital transformation. This is the key message of a diagnostic report titled ‘Digital Skills Landscape in Indonesia’ and a strategy primer titled ‘Accelerating Digital Skills Development in Indonesia’. These two documents were recently released and jointly prepared by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); the SMERU Research Institute; Indonesia and the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

The alarming increase in the number of traffic accidents in Indonesia every year motivated the developers to create the app.

The students of Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Indonesia have developed an application that will help reduce the number of traffic accidents.

According to a recent press release, D’BOS has the capability to assess driver behaviour, thereby preventing the possible occurrence of accidents.

The Sixth Annual Meeting of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) opened in Bali, Indonesia, on July 12 with the participation of representatives of national and local governments across the region.

Representatives from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport; and the Seoul National University attended the meeting to exchange views on how to enhance existing cooperation and catalyse new partnerships.

According to the World Bank, around 56% of the world’s population lives in cities. By 2050, this figure is predicted to rise to 70%. This acceleration towards urbanisation is putting city infrastructure under enormous strain. Congested highways, crammed public transport, overworked waste management systems and sporadic urban planning are just a few consequences of our collective influx into cities.

Some cities in the Asia Pacific, such as Singapore, Jakarta and Osaka, have turned to technology to deal with the challenges of growing urban populations. These have become known as “smart cities”, leveraging advancements in sensor technologies, cloud computing and data infrastructure to serve residents, visitors and businesses better.

I've been wondering how far artificial intelligence (AI) can go to make human life easier and, amid the current pandemic, safer. A good place to start is Japan, where AI is gaining ground in fields from fashion to elder care.

For example, apparel companies hit by the pandemic have been tapping AI technology to boost sagging sales, using it to predict trending designs and colours.