Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

On Wednesday (13/07) ISED in collaboration with the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG), the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo), and the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Busniess UGM held a webinar, which was called ISED SERIES #19, online via Zoom Meetings. The topic raised in this webinar is about “Digitalization and Public Empowerment” and conducted by inviting three expert speakers related to the topic, namely Ganjar Pranowo, S.H., M.I.P., as Governor of Central Java Province, Rimawan Praditya, S.E., M.Sc., PhD., as the Head of the Department of Economics, FEB UGM, and Boni Pudjianto, PhD., as the Director of Information Empowerment at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics.

The event started with opening remarks from the Founder of ISED, Drs. Rudiantara, M.B.A. Then, the event continued with a presentation session by the first speaker, which was Ganjar Pranowo, S.H., M.I.P., who discussed the topic “Central Java Go Digital.” As Governor of Central Java, Ganjar recounts the various digitization efforts that have been successfully carried out by him, one of which is Lapak Ganjar that uses social media Instagram to increase the popularity of various types of Central Java MSMEs to the general public. Regarding MSMEs, the Central Java Government has also created collaborations between the creative industry and MSMEs to open up space for creative young people, named Hetero Space. The majority of MSMEs in Central Java have used social media for promotion and have also taken advantage of the use of QRIS.

In addition to MSMEs topic, Ganjar also explained the Central Java Government's efforts to use social media as a medium of socialization and communication, including by creating a public complaint channel called LaporGub! which implements the principle of easy, cheap, fast, and complete service. Other digitization efforts that have been implemented by the Central Java Government are the implementation of the Government Resources Management System (GRMS) which integrates various functions within the government, One Stop Licensing, digital vehicle tax payments, Central Java Investment Portal, and the implementation of Trans Jateng payments with GoPay.

Next was a presentation session by the second resource person, namely Rimawan Praditya, S.E., M.Sc., PhD. Rimawan discussed the topic titled as “SONJO: Synergy to Build Online Self-Help Groups Between Community Elements in the Covid-19 Pandemic Period.” SONJO, which stands for Sambatan Jogja, is an inspiring humanitarian movement that has been operating since March 24, 2020 and is based on a WhatsApp (WAG) group. SONJO has a mission to help vulnerable and at risk communities to the spread of Covid-19 in DIY by solving various problems that exist in the field appropriately. Solving these problems, for example, is done by conducting peer-learning and also community-based marketing. By utilizing WAG, communication between members (elements of society) also increases and minimizes what is referred to as incomplete information.

The event then continued to a presentation session from the third resource person, Boni Pudjianto, PhD. Boni discussed topics around digitalization and public empowerment related to The Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) G20 2020. Based on his explanation, Indonesia has compiled a digital transformation acceleration roadmap for 2021-2024 which is divided into short, medium, and long terms and includes several things such as telecommunications infrastructure, supporting policies/regulations, supporting ecosystem, and the demographics of tech-savvy youth.

However, the digital transformation efforts that will be carried out face several challenges related to digital infrastructure, digital human resources, and regulations/policies. To overcome these challenges, one of the efforts that can be done is by developing superior and competitive digital human resources through skills education programs and formal education scholarships. In addition, in his session, Boni also explained several issues that are DEWG's priorities at the G20 Indonesia Presidency in 2022, which are digital connectivity and recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, digital skills and digital literacy, as well as cross-country data flows. The webinar event ended with a discussion session and a question and answer session between the speakers and the webinar participants.

Reportagse: Kirana Lalita Pristy.