TEMPO.CO, Silicon Valley - President Joko Widodo has asked Google to support the development of Indonesia’s digital economy, adding that he wanted to produce 1,000 technopreneurs by 2020.
“We expect support in education for IT developers,” said Jokowi when meeting with Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, in Googleplex, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Wednesday, February 17, 2016.
Jokowi explained that the government has made several policies to realize Indonesia’s vision as the largest digital economy in Southeast Asia worth US$130 billion by 2020.
“The policies are [among others] launching of e-commerce roadmap and ten economic policy packages as well as access to financing for SMEs and IT startups,” said Jokowi in his press release received by Tempo, Thursday, February 18, 2016.
Jokowi also appreciated Google in their effort to overcome illegal unreported and unregulated fishing. “I hope Google could support Indonesia’s effort in empowering digital economy for SMEs,” he said.
Accompanied by the First Lady Irian Joko Widodo, the President met with 39 Indonesian citizens working at Google, the IndoGooglers.
In the meeting, Jokowi also watched simulations of several applications, such as illegal fishing boat capture; demos of Google Empire, Business Line and Growth Evolution; and also watched Google Apps, Google Maps and Google Loon simulations.
“I’ve experienced the benefit of the digital applications. I’m excited and I have asked them to promptly implement the digitalization,” he said.
In the meeting, Sundra Pichai and Google’s executives wore batik shirts to welcome Jokowi and his entourage at Googleplex.
Before the IndoGooglers, Jokowi also said that he believed that digitalization is a certainty for a country of Indonesia’s size which has 252 million citizens and 17,000 of islands.
ARKHELAUS WISNU
