Digital competitiveness now more equitably spread across Indonesia

FOR all the talk of a global digital winter, Indonesia’s digital economy – on track to be worth an estimated US$360 billion by 2030 – continues to power ahead.

The latest digital competitiveness index (DCI) report by venture capital firm East Ventures has reported that the impact of digitalisation on society and the economy is starting to be felt even in the far reaches of the sprawling archipelago. Digital competitiveness across Indonesia’s 38 provinces and 157 cities has also been more evenly distributed since 2020.

This means that even second-tier and third-tier cities are catching up with first-tier cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung in terms of Internet penetration and the level of digitalisation. On the whole, 77 per cent of the population has access to the Internet, up sharply from just 13 per cent in 2009.