Release of Digital Technology 4.0 Adoption by Ministry of Communication and Informatics Republic of Indonesia

Jakarta - To accelerate the recovery of the national economy after the pandemic especially SMEs, the government through the Ministry of Communication and Informatics released Digital Technology  4.0 Adoption on Friday, May 31, 2022. Using this program, the government tried to optimize the potential and productivity of SMEs by propelling the digitalization of SMEs still using offline transactions.

The launching of this program was conducted by the hybrid method which was presented to more than 100 participants offline and 1.000 people online including through social media channels. It was opened by remarks from the Minister of Communication and Informatics, Johnny G. Plate, Deputy of the Micro Business Sector, Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, Ir. Eddy Satria, M.A,  General Director of Informatics Application, Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan, MM, Deputy of Tourism and Creative Economy, Coordinating Ministry of Maritime and Investment, Odo RM Manuhutu, and from seminar event namely CEO of Gojek Group, Kevin Aluwi, President and Co-Founder Qasir, Rachmat Anggara Supriyadi also Deputy Head of Institutional Training Field Economic and Societal Research, Faculty of Economy and Business, University of Indonesia (LPEM FEB UI), Khoirunurrofik, Ph.D., and SME Actors (Ida Royani and Jenahara). This event was attended by many representatives from local governments, ministries/institutions, digital platforms, SME facilitators, and SME actors.

SMEs as the representatives of the people's economy because they can permeate employment to 97% of total employment in Indonesia and give contributions as much as 60,42% of the National Gross Domestic Product. According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, in April 2020, had occurred increasing online transactions at 480 percentages than in January 2020. There is a covid-19 pandemic that encourages society and the business world to harness e-commerce in business transactions.

For succeeding in this program, in 2021, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics facilitated accompaniment for 26.000 SMEs for active selling digitally especially SMEs Producer in Manufacturing Sector in 10 Priority Tourism Areas. Manufacturing Sectors consist of Food and Beverages, Handy-craft and Webbing, Textile and Fashion, Furniture, Leather Craft, and others based on the Indonesian Standard Industry Classification that is arranged by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

In 2022, this program continued and increased by facilitation of assistance for 30.000 SMEs to intensify their capability or scale-up digital technology 4.0 adoption of SMEs Producer in the Manufacturing Sector in 13 Priority Region Areas such as North Sumatra, Bangka Belitung, Banten, Jakarta Capital Special Region, and Central Java, North Maluku, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Southeast Sulawesi, West Kalimantan, Papua, and West Papua.

The registration of this program could be performed by link registration: https://umkmgoonline.kominfo.go.id and the schedule of registration held May 15-22, 2022. The step of SME registration liked the fulfillment of the email and SMEs profile carried on filling out the questionnaire on the need for digital technology adoption and asserting the readiness to join this program in 6 months from May to October 2022.

SMEs as training participants got the benefit of a data package in 6 months, access to an aggregator application, a learning management system, and free training from other digital platforms for six months. Before the training started, we conducted an assessment of the digital technology adoption level. It consisted of beginners, observers, adopters, and leaders. Beginner-level of SMEs with business, financial, and technology dimension has low-level adoption. Observer-level SMEs have managed their business in a modern way but their capability to use the technology is low-level. Adopter-level of SMEs have good technology skills yet their business is still in the traditional methods. However, the leader-level of SMEs have managed their business with modern and high digital skills.

Furthermore, it opened the recruitment and training of 165 trainers who worked in 13 Priority Tourism Areas on May 14-22, 2022. This training has joined the panelist from 23 digital platforms in Indonesia which consisted of social commerce, e-commerce, financial technology, point of sales systems, technology 4.0 such as Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, etc.

By increasing their digital technology adoption, we hope that SMEs can scale up and contribute to economic growth, especially for the recovery of the economy after Covid 19 pandemic. Even though, Rise of SME Producers in the manufacturing sector can increase production in domestic, escalate export values, and support National Movement "Made in Indonesia".

The release of this program can be expected to make synergize and get support from other Ministries/Institutions and local government. We still remember that many SMEs need training in digital technology. We hope this national program becomes a continuous movement and to reach the vision together like Gold Indonesian through Industry 4.0 in 2025.