Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo emphasized that digitalization is one of the keys to improving Indonesia’s economic future after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We want to bring Indonesia’s digitalization to the ASEAN, then to the global level, at the G20 in Indonesia,” Warjiyo noted in his statement here on Friday.

The BI governor remarked that digitalization is developing at a swift pace in Indonesia, and the use of digitalization is crucial for the sustainable development of Indonesia’s economy in future.

Digitization, especially payment digitization, is one of the six priority agendas of the financial pathway during Indonesia’s presidency at the G20 2022 in July.

Warjiyo emphasized this point while attending the 2022 Indonesia-Singapore Business Forum in Singapore last Tuesday.

The BI governor noted that Indonesia and other ASEAN countries are currently preparing to develop cross-border payment system initiatives, including involving Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). BI noted that as many as 18 million MSMEs in Indonesia have accessed digital technology.

“18 million is a big number. However, this is actually small because we have 65 million MSMEs that need to be connected (digitally),” he remarked.

Warjiyo also drew attention to the fact that Indonesia has a large retail market that should be embraced for post-pandemic economic recovery.

On the same occasion, Blibli CEO and co-founder Kusumo Martanto stated that consumers in Indonesia used e-commerce platforms to purchase daily necessities, both from MSMEs and large companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic, people are trying to get hand sanitizer, masks, and medicine. That is where we play a big role,” he stated.

Based on research in 2021 conducted by Blibli with the Boston Consulting Group and Kompas, MSMEs that switch to online can have 1.1 times higher income than those that only operate offline.

Meanwhile, online MSMEs are also 2.1 times more likely to sell various products on a national scale and 4.6 times more likely to export their products overseas.

However, based on the Sirclo study, 74.5 percent of consumers are still shopping both offline and online during the pandemic. Hence, Martanto views the future of retail in the post-pandemic era as an integration between online and offline channels, or omnichannel.

Hence, Blibli continues to strengthen its omnichannel ecosystem, including through the Blibli InStore, Click and Collect, and Blibli Mitra, which connects online and offline business operations in an integrated ecosystem for Blibli retail partners.

“Omnichannel shopping has become the new norm. We must be ready to provide fast and complete omnichannel services,” Martanto stated.

Meanwhile, Tiket.com CEO George Hendrata stated that training for human resources is still needed to realize the potential of digitization. Deputy Head of Technology and Consumers for Temasek Fock Wai Hoong also noted that getting talented human resources is indeed a major obstacle to technological development.

“This is a challenge for all of us. How do we focus on reskilling and upskilling our working population while we prepare to participate in the Internet economy,” he affirmed.

Source: Antara News