Johnny G Plate Discusses Three Priority Issues at DEWG G20

VIVA – Minister of Communication and Information, Johnny G Plate officially opened the Digital Economy Working Group Meeting (DEWG) of the G20 Presidency on Wednesday, 20 July 2022. This meeting discussed three priority issues.

The DEWG G20 meeting was attended by 20 delegates, 17 delegates were present physically and 3 delegates were virtually from G20 member countries.

This meeting discussed three priority issues such as cooperation in handling cross-border data flows and a strong foundation for understanding cross-border data flows.

"The Indonesian government has set three agendas or priority issues in the implementation of DEWG G20, namely Post Covid-19 Recovery and Connectivity, Digital Skills and Digital Literacy, and Cross-Border Data Flow and Data Free-Flow with Trust," Johnny G Plate remarked at Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara.

These three issues are expected to encourage useful digital space and economically valuable data.

In addition, the Minister of Communication and Information also pays attention to aspects of data sovereignty related to geopolitics and geostrategy.

Johnny G Plate continued that Indonesia has a digital economy potential of US$146 billion (Rp2,186 trillion) in 2025 and will increase to US$315 billion (Rp4,717 trillion) in 2030, equivalent to 42 percent of Southeast Asia's digital economy.

"For now, the task as well as the challenge is the citizens, which is the domestic economic power to encourage it. So, the benefits of our digital economy grow rapidly and are enjoyed by the whole citizens," he said.

Regarding digital literacy and skills, it’s the responsibility of every stakeholder related to the government, private industry and non-government entities.

The use of digital technology has demanded the government to increase the message in preparing society through digital skills and literacy in it, connecting inclusive digital transformation.

"Our journey in optimizing digital literacy and skills is still far ahead. As the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said, one in three individuals choose not to digitize due to a lack of awareness and confidence in using technology," The Minister of Communication and Information said.

The DEWG G20 is expected to produce a set of policies and recommendations to improve digital economy skills and literacy.