Digital Transformation Center Indonesia

At a glance

Indonesia is highly committed to achieving its Indonesia Emas 2045 goals, a roadmap for economic development focusing on emerging technologies and the digital industry ecosystem. Aligned with global trends, pressing issues such as digitalization, green economy, and digital innovation to support sustainability are at the forefront. However, challenges persist, including the digital divide, which risks widening the gap between different countries as well as groups within Indonesia itself. The development of artificial intelligence raises ethical concerns regarding its societal impact, while many green technologies remain too immature and costly for widespread adoption.

In the digital age, various aspects of Indonesian society are increasingly intertwined with information and communication technologies, shifting thought patterns, attitudes, and community behaviors in accessing and sharing information. Digital platforms are making it easier for Indonesians to access information and engage in interactive communication, contributing to a young and vibrant digital tech scene, particularly in metropolitan areas like Jakarta. Despite these advancements, marginalized groups and rural communities are often left behind, unable to fully participate in the “new economy.”

Digitalization and innovation offer promising potential to sustainably transform Indonesia’s economy, ensuring that disadvantaged regions also benefit from the country’s dynamic growth. To support these ambitions, Indonesia’s National Medium-Term Development Plan for 2025-2029 includes a strong emphasis on digital issues as a critical component of sustainable national development.

Our approach

As global partners, Indonesia and Germany are determined to work together to deliver sustainable, climate-neutral, and resilient development. On behalf of BMZ, for the two years the Digital Transformation Center (DTC) and Make-IT Projects are implemented together with the Ministry of National Development Planning / Bappenas.

The project consists of three main focus areas; Advancing digital literacy through government advice, supporting local innovation for digital and green economy (Twin Transition), and enabling digital technologies through Artificial Intelligence.

Supporting the local innovations covers activities to support startups and micro-small medium enterprises (MSMEs) to adopt digital solutions and catalyse utilization of digital solutions to tackle climate challenges. The climate challenges are currently categorized into areas of energy transition, circular economy, and natural resource management (green technology), hence supporting sustainable economic transition in Indonesia.

To enrich the digital transformation support in Indonesia, the project “FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All”, is also active as part of the Digital Transformation Center Indoneisa. The activities in regarding AI will focus on the utilisation of geospatial data in climate action and supporting the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. FAIR Forward aims to address unbiased and localized AI resources, such as training datasets, AI models, and other technologies, in developing countries.