The government sets its eyes on Nongsa Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and keen to accelerate its IDR60 trillion investment that has yet to achieve. The development of Nongsa focuses on economic digitization on the pretext of being able to contribute to Indonesian economy in the IT field. Currently, there are only 11 data center companies that have allocated their capital and electricity needs of IDR14 trillion and 125MW (megaWatts).
Nongsa Digital Park (NDP) is a digital tech business-based company and data center development in the Nongsa SEZ in Batam Island, neighboring to Singapore. It is a tech community providing community & workspace, digital start-up supports as well as providing training programs and events about IT programmers, animators, entrepreneurs and others.
The government encourages Nongsa SEZ for the development in research activities, digital economy and technology development as well as tourism, education and creative industries. The area is 166.45 hectares based on Government Regulation (PP) No. 68/2021 on Nongsa SEZ.
“The government will continue to encourage NDP’s efforts to materialize its investment in the near future. Here, we see the progress of animation industry,” Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said on April 27, 2022.
According to Hartarto, there are IDR39 trillion investments divided into: regional development of IDR1.3 trillion and investment for business actors of IDR37.7 trillion. However, NDP has a target of IDR60 trillion, but currently, IDR40 trillion has only been materialized.
In its development, Nongsa SEZ has developed various digital talents who have collaborated in education institutions such as the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University Australia in Cyber Security Course and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud data management. Lastly, Epic Games also joined in to provide training for trainers in using Unreal Engine.
According to Hartarto, the Nongsa SEZ can be a gateway for various international digital IT companies as well as a digital link between Indonesia-Singapore and the international community. Its presence can play a major role in developing human resource skills in the region so that it can contribute to the economy as a technopreneur. On the other hand, its presence can also save the country’s foreign exchange in the digital field.
Nongsa SEZ or NDP can be the backbone of Indonesia’s IT development going forward in the region. Where Indonesia can become a strategic liaison with various countries internationally. NDP’s commitment to Indonesia in the IT sector can bear fruit with the large number of investments channeled by various companies for IT education providing soft skills and hard skills. This investment is believed to have a good impact on Indonesia and the Indonesian economy, especially in the digital realm.
