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President Jokowi and Tony Blair discussed a number of strategic matters, especially regarding the government's digital transformation which is currently being accelerated with the Minister of PANRB becoming one of the coordinators of the national Electronic Based Government System (SPBE) team.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) received former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Thursday (18/04/2024). During the meeting, President Joko Widodo, accompanied by the Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia and the Minister for Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB) Abdullah Azwar Anas, discussed a series of strategic initiatives to advance the renewable energy sector and digital transformation in Indonesia.

In his statement after the meeting, the Minister of Investment said that the meeting with Tony Blair resulted in several important agreements, including plans to build solar panel facilities in the Indonesian Capital City (IKN), which will be carried out together with the United Arab Emirates.

"We are currently working out the details of this development plan," said the Investment Minister, adding that the initiative would be facilitated by Tony Blair and was part of wider cooperation in the fields of new renewable energy and logistics.

Apart from that, the discussion also included plans for utilizing carbon storage in Indonesia, which is expected to become a new source of state income.

"We talked about carbon storage, which we decided yesterday, 70 (percent) domestic, 30 (percent) overseas," said Bahlil as quoted from the setkab.go.id website.

On the digital transformation side, PANRB Minister Abdullah Azwar Annas revealed that Indonesia is working hard to accelerate digital transformation in the bureaucratic sector. For this reason, his party is collaborating with the Tony Blair Institute and conducting studies in countries that have advanced in digital transformation, such as the UK and Estonia.

"When we were asked by the President to coordinate digital transformation, Tony Blair went to the Kemenpan RB office, he assured us that there was no faster way to double the country's achievements and an efficient bureaucracy except the digitalization program," he explained.

MenPAN RB also revealed that President Jokowi had given special directions to integrate digital services through the national portal. It is hoped that this will make it easier for the public to access various government services.

“So far, in Indonesia, things are still separated. Want to access service A, then download the Ministry A application; then if you want to access service B you have to download application B. Data entry is repetitive and there is no good data interoperability so people are having difficulties. "This is what the President wants to make everything simple and make things easier for the people, and that is what INA Digital is currently working on as GovTech Indonesia," explained Anas. (IN)