State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) trying to participate in supporting the development of the digital economy by building infrastructure to providing access to funding. Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprises I Pahala Mansury at the Merdeka Economic Forum which was monitored online in Jakarta, Monday, said the effort was a way for SOEs to help build a digital economic ecosystem in the current digitalization era. "We are trying to be part of the ecosystem and also a source of funding," he said. According to Pahala, previously the Association of State-Owned Banks (Himbara) focused on providing loans to companies and SMEs. However, with the digital system to be built in the future, Himbara also needs to provide funding in the form of venture capital with flexibility. Pahala said the Ministry of SOEs had launched the Merah Putih Fund to support funding for domestic startups to become unicorns. "We hope that the Merah Putih Fund can give birth to soonicorns, unicorn candidates and truly native to Indonesia, so that private investors can join in and synergize with the fund managed by Himbara and Telkom," he said. Pahala said Indonesia's digital economy is targeted to reach more than 10% of national GDP by 2025. This target forces players in Indonesia to not only be spectators but also players who have their own ecosystem and are able to compete globally.
"For that we have to prepare ourselves by developing infrastructure and the role of SOEs, especially in infrastructure development, for example related to fiber networks," he said. In addition, continued Pahala, BUMN also helped build digital platforms in various parts and service products by ensuring local players became hosts in their own country. Pahala added that another important point in the development of the digital economy is talent or human resources (HR).
"In 2030, with the development of the digital economy that continues to increase, we see the need for labor in the digital economy sector will also greatly increase. It is even estimated that it will reach 17 million workers needed in 2030," he said. There are a number of talents that will be needed later, Pahala continued, ranging from programmers, data scientists, Artificial Intelligence, digital marketing, digital project management, digital design and data. "It is a skill or talent that is a challenge for all of us how in the next eight years we build a workforce that is capable and can compete with global players," he said. Pahala also emphasized the role of SOEs in optimizing digitalization to be able to help MSMEs develop through the MSME Digital Market (PaDi). With this platform, MSMEs can enter the SOE supply chain. "We are connecting the supply chain of SOEs with MSMEs. We hope that by optimizing this digitalization, SOEs can provide MSMEs access to SOEs," concluded Pahala.
