President Jokowi Appeals to Facebook to Support Indonesia`s Digital Economy

President Jokowi played zero-gravity VR ping pong with Mark Zuckerberg

Silicon Valley, San Francisco, 10 Jumadal Awwal 1437/19 February 2016 (MINA) – President Joko Widodo asked Facebook to support digital economic development in Indonesia and help the nation achieve its vision to become the biggest digital economy in Southeast Asia, with economic value reaching US$130 billion by 2020.

The president, who is also known as Jokowi, made the statement during a meeting with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg who was accompanied by the company’s executives in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, on Wednesday noon local time or Thursday morning in Indonesia.

President Jokowi said the Indonesian government lauded Facebooks contribution in developing Indonesias digital culture and economy.

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“I hope Facebook would cooperate with Indonesia in its efforts to achieve its vision of becoming the biggest digital economy in Southeast Asia, with a value of US$130 billion by 2020”, the president affirmed.

The head of state remarked that the Indonesian digital economy is being boosted by the development of micro, small and medium-scale businesses (SMEs). Therefore, Indonesia has prepared a short- and long-term action plan, focusing on accelerating digital access to SMEs.

The Indonesian government has adopted several policies to encourage the growth of technopreneurs and to lure investment, including in the IT field, to boost financing access to SMEs, Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) reported, quoting Antara News.

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Jokowi noted that the Indonesian government also continued to adopt policies that are expected to encourage innovations. This included the program on the creation of one thousand technopreneurs and protection of start-up companies.

With regard to its program to create a thousand technopreneurs, Indonesia has called on Facebook to support education for IT developers in Indonesia.

“I hope Facebook would also support Indonesias efforts to empower the digital economy for SMEs”, noted the president.

On the occasion, Jokowi also said that he had called on the leaders of ASEAN and the United States to empower the leaders of peace during the ASEAN-US Summit in Sunnylands on February 15-16, 2016.

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To this end, the president especially appealed to Facebook to play an active role in disseminating the message of peace.

“I ask Facebook to help reinforce the dissemination of messages of peace, moderation, and tolerance,” Jokowi stated. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)