Jakarta Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny G. Plate, in a special interview with ANTARA, as quoted on Saturday, underlined the importance of discussing cross-border data flow during the G20 international forum.

G20 is an international forum comprising 19 countries that work together to handle major issues. Indonesia is holding the presidency of the grouping this year.

The minister deemed that the issue of data is related to three matters. For the first, data is likened to oil and thereby having a large economic value.

“Because of this, we need to manage data well,” he emphasized.

Secondly, data is related to the sovereignty of a country, while thirdly, data is geostrategic in nature, which means that it can determine a country’s future.

“To this end, we cannot simplify data despite the fact that the problems are very complicated,” he remarked.

The complexity of data can be seen from the three mentioned issues. A country needs to manage data in order to avail economic benefits while maintaining sovereignty of data and its geostrategic nature.

There has yet to be an agreement on cross-border data flow in the world. As a result, during Japan’s G20 Presidency, member countries agreed on data free flow with trust.

Source: Antara News