Exchange on national digital strategies of Indonesia and Germany

Digital ecosystems are a cornerstone of socio-economic development and innovation worldwide. To develop them further, national digital strategies play an important role. They can accelerate the digital transformation, stimulate economic growth and empower citizens to participate in the digitalised society.

Both Indonesia and Germany recognise this importance. In 2021, MCI launched Indonesia’s Digital Roadmap that focuses on digital infrastructure development, e-government initiatives, digital economy and digital society. In 2022, the German government adopted its new digital strategy, coordinated by BMDV. It provides an overarching framework and includes concrete goals to advance digitalisation in Germany.

To facilitate a deeper understanding of the strategies and identify areas for collaboration, representatives from both ministries and stakeholders of both countries came together in a virtual meeting.

Germany’s national and international digital strategy

In their opening remarks, Heiko Wildner (BMDV) and Ichwan Makmur Nasution (MCI) stressed how important international cooperation is for fostering digitalisation in a highly interconnected world. Representatives from the ministries then informed about the countries’ respective digital strategies and ambitions for their digital ecosystems.

Wildner shed light on Germany's national digital strategy and shared insights about its conception and development process. He also highlighted that digital sovereignty is a critical factor for successfully reaching digital policy goals. Dr David Hagebölling (BMDV) provided an outlook on Germany’s planned strategy on international digital policy. Since the internet is a global network and digitalisation crosses borders, an international focus and international cooperation are of great importance in digital strategic approaches, according to Dr Hagebölling.

Indonesia: Shaping a digital society

As Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populated country with more than 210 million people online, the country has great potential for economic growth through strategic digitalisation. MCI representative Sonny Hendra Sudaryana presented the building blocks of the strategy “Digital Nation of Indonesia”. The main pillars are digital government, digital society and digital economy. He particularly highlighted the development of human capital as strategically important, alongside the country’s other priority topics, such as high-speed internet infrastructure, national data centres and the digital economy ecosystem.

Shared focus topics of Indonesia and Germany

Both governments share focus topics, such as fostering a digital and connected society, a digital state and government as well as an innovative economy. Additionally, both sides see risks and challenges related to the digital transformation which must be anticipated and managed.

Specifically pressing challenges, according to Fahrizal Lukman Budiono (MCI), are the digital gap, technological disruption, data and cybersecurity and culture issues. One approach to deal with these challenges could be to strengthen quality infrastructure for digitalisation, for example through promoting international standards.

Open multi-stakeholder discussion

Following the presentations, the participating stakeholders from various backgrounds had the opportunity to engage with the experts and government representatives. They shared their perspectives and questions, e.g. on sustainability efforts and cross-sectoral collaboration in the digital transformation.

The Indonesian-German Digital Dialogue will continue to serve as a platform for multi-stakeholder exchange. More activities will follow soon, such as the exchange on data protection policies of Indonesia and Germany on 26 September 2023.