In December 2023, the Indonesia Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, launched The White Paper on National Strategy for Development of Indonesia's Digital Economy 2030.[1]

'This document is the national digital transformation agenda that is in line with the Digital Economy Framework (DEFA) negotiations promoted by Indonesia,' he remarked during the launch of the White Paper in Jakarta on Wednesday.

According to the Minister, Indonesia requires about nine million workers in the digital sector in the next 15 years, which translates to a need for the country to produce 600,000 digitally-capable talents annually over a 15-year timeframe.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s creative economy, a sub-sector of the digital economy, is also expected to grow strongly and further reduce the unemployment rate, having contributed as much as eight per cent to Indonesia’s GDP in 2022[2], making it one of the country's best-performing sectors.[3]

In fact, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno had stated that Indonesia’s creative economy was among the top three in the world after South Korea and the United States, primarily led by cuisine, handicrafts and fashion.

Strong growth prospects for the creative and digital economies bode well for future partnerships to be formed in these sectors between Indonesia and the UK, especially following the Indonesia Investment Forum (IIF) 2023, which took place in London in early October 2023. The event, which aimed to promote Indonesia's investment landscape and Investment Projects Ready to Offer (IPRO), notably featured business matching sessions from 11 sectors, including digital transformation.[4]

What does it mean for the UK HE Sector?

There has been a trend in recent years for government scholarship providers, including Ministry of Communication and Information Technology[5] and LPDP[6] to offer overseas scholarship in four strategic areas that support Indonesia’s National Digitalisation Transformation Agenda, namely digital infrastructure, digital government, digital economy, and digital society. We therefore encourage UK universities to actively promote their digital economy courses when engaging with Indonesia stakeholders. We will update the sector on the opening of LPDP scholarships, usually twice a year at the end of January and early June.