Policy Approaches in Internet Connectivity Infrastructure: Indonesia as the Future Digital Hub in Asia Pacific

The data-driven digital economy has brought massive disruption in ways of doing business. It allows the digitization of the supply chain, faster and more efficient financial transactions, and operational excellence. Despite already seeing monumental growth, Indonesia’s digital economy still has space to grow and mature. Its market size also brings the potential for the country to become a digital hub for the Asia Pacific region. Current geopolitical dynamics that impact the way companies reconsider their market presence in the region, may also place Indonesia as a potentially appealing market to enter.

Impeding these potentials are challenges in upscaling, expanding the reach and increasing bandwidth capacities of the country’s internet connectivity infrastructure. Here, subsea fiber optic cable systems and data centers are requisites for boosting a data-driven digital economy. However Indonesian regulations regarding these issues are not met without concerns and there remain key socio-economic, security, and environmental issues to be further addressed and resolved.

Some key questions that will be discussed in the session are:

1. What efforts are being made on Indonesia’s digital economy on the expansion of internet connectivity across the country?
2. How can Indonesia be an attractive investment destination in the digital infrastructure sector? And how can the country be more competitive in the region?
3. What are the challenges and opportunities in expanding and increasing the capacity of the national internet connectivity, especially Indonesia as landing points of submarine cable?