Indonesia’s Digital Transformation Hinges on Robust Data Governance

The Indonesian government under the Prabowo-Gibran administration is pushing hard to meet its vision for “Indonesia Emas 2045” (Golden Indonesia 2045). This ambitious target aims for Indonesia’s GDP per capita to become the 5th best in the world, decreasing the poverty rate to 0.5-0.8%, increasing Indonesia’s weight and influence on the world stage, improving Indonesia’s Human Capital Index to 0.73, and intensifying Indonesia’s efforts at carbon neutrality (Bappenas & Kementerian PPN, 2025). Solid data governance will lay the groundwork for decision-makers to make informed decisions based on the latest findings, and thus the government’s objectives for the future relies primarily on its ability to manage information.

Presently, Indonesia’s ability to do so is extremely limited, especially in its rural regions. 5,158 villages/sub-districts completely lack access to signal. In Maluku and Papua, this figure is disproportionally higher, with 38.12% of both regions lacking access. These disparities between urban and rural regions, especially between Eastern and Western Indonesia, only contribute to inequal development.

Percentages of blank spots in Indonesia based on the regions

Even in regions that possess access to internet, both government functions and ordinary citizens still face difficulties. 27,500 existing government online applications are not integrated, resulting in ineffective policies and public services due to inconsistent data. This also leads to a significant amount of bloat, as the government requires a large number of consultants and IT experts to maintain its applications (Ihsanuddin & Nugraheny, 2024). In one such example, spatial and statistical data is available on two separate webpages, Indonesia One Map and Indonesia One Data. Although spatial and statistical data was meant to be unified through Indonesia’s One Data Policy, both websites still have conflicts with one another as they are run by different services, further complicating the integration of data. Indonesia also faces serious issues with data protection. From 2019-2024, the Ministry of Communications and Information handled 114 cases of data violation, with 111 of them being data breach cases. (Widi, 2024) Between January to 2023, there were approximately 35 cases of data breaches, ranging from government institutions to state-owned enterprises’ data. During the 2024 presidential elections, around 204 million data records of voters and candidates were breached and sold on online forums. (Narasi Newsroom, 2023) Many such breaches occur through serious lapses in basic security measures. In one example, Indonesia’s largest online database was compromised due to an alarmingly weak password, Admin#1234, on a connected computer (Nistanto, 2024).

These data governance issues also extend to the healthcare sector, where 2,200 local health centers and 11,000 local health sub-centers do not have an internet connection. This causes various complications preventing local healthcare systems from operating at maximum efficiency. Sick people are unable to receive telehealth consultations, which is an issue in rural areas where access to clinics is difficult. Healthcare workers are also unable to access online training or keep public medical records online, which creates barriers to professional development and the sharing of vital medical information (Aranditio, 2023). As a result, the implementation of health policy in Indonesia is significantly hampered, leading to delays in essential services, reduced quality of care, and difficulties in monitoring and evaluating public health initiatives.

Numbers of villages/sub-districts based on its signal’ status and the existence of BTS

The current and past Indonesian governments have long acknowledged these difficulties and have made efforts to reform data governance, often to varying degrees of success. Presently, the government has laid the foundations for a robust internet infrastructure backbone, having built 13,000 kilometers of fiber optics as well as Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) covering 57 districts and cities, a remarkable accomplishment for a nation of 17,000 islands. Recently, however, the government’s BTS scheme has come under fire for an ongoing corruption case, showing that there are still problems with the current implementation of data governance expansion (Mediana, 2023).

A recent law, Presidential Regulation No. 82/2023, aims to accelerate Indonesia’s digital transformation by integrating national digital services. It focuses on improving public service delivery through a single unified point of access, an application called INA Digital. Despite this, however, many experts argue that its implementation has been flawed due to a contradicting earlier law, Presidential Regulation No. 95 of 2018 concerning Electronic-Based Government Systems (SPBE). Presidential No. 95/2018 represents an earlier effort at digitalizing the government by pushing the public sector to develop their own separate applications. Due to the 2018 regulation, analysts believe the resulting fragmented application landscape has made future integration extremely difficult, effectively setting back the creation of an integrated government application ANAS 2023.

To address these issues, the Indonesian Business Council (IBC) presents several recommendations in its Governance Reform: Advancing Indonesia’s Governance Reform Towards Achieving the ‘Indonesia Emas 2045’ Vision white paper. To begin with, low earth orbit (LEO) satellites should be considered to complement existing fiber optic networks, especially for remote regions where laying cable networks is unfeasible. As these satellites are expensive, however, they should only be used sparingly for the most remote of regions. This cost can be partially reduced by allowing and mandating private telecommunications to share infrastructure, thus cutting down on redundancies. Secondly, the government should revise Presidential Regulation No. 39/2019 regarding One Data Indonesia. As previously covered, Indonesia’s efforts at integrating its geospatial and statistical information has been hampered by a lack of clarity regarding the delegation of authority over government agencies responsible for data custodians and producers. The government must rectify this immediately if it is to unify Indonesia’s handling of data. Reform in this area can be modelled after the United Kingdom’s Government Digital Service. The GDS first emphasized shifting the British government’s work strategy towards a user-oriented mindset. It then integrated pre-existing government websites to provide simpler services. Lastly, the GDS built a system that was easily replicable by other government departments, agencies, and local authorities. Today, the GDS now focuses on building and fostering partnerships to continue its services. Finally, the Indonesian government must enforce Law No. 27/2022 on Personal Data Protection. Indonesia’s frequent data breaches erodes public and investor trust in the government’s ability to manage their data, which limits public adoption of Indonesia’s current and planned digital services. Ensuring public data safety and ethical use will significantly accelerate both public adoption and trust in not only digital services, but also in government institutions.

The challenges to Indonesian data governance are indeed complex, but not insurmountable. As a vast archipelagic nation, Indonesia must commit to infrastructure development, safeguarding its data, and unifying its approach to data if it is to succeed in the future. Presently, there is still much to be done. Nevertheless, with the continued push for digital transformation and the institutions to support it, Indonesia can continue to address its digital governance challenges.

This article is shorter and partial version of IBC’s Governance Reform: Advancing Indonesia’s Governance Reform Towards Achieving the ‘Indonesia Emas 2045’ Vision white paper.