Thales Group, a global technology company from France and the National Capital Authority (OIKN) of Indonesia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 25, 2023, for the development of a smart city in IKN.
Established in 2000, Thales Group is a multinational company specializing in various high technology industries, with its headquarters in France. It has a long history of innovation and expertise in the fields of aerospace, defense, security and transportation.
Thales operates in over 56 countries and serves customers worldwide. Thales provides satellites, payloads, equipment, systems and services for communications, navigation, Earth observation and space exploration.
The development for IKN will include digital identity, traffic management, unmanned aircraft systems, and cybersecurity, including improvement on digital security and data centers.
Bambang Susantono, head of OIKN said, this collaboration reflects OIKN and Thales’ commitment to supporting the development of a green economy and the development of smart cities.
He conveyed that the concepts offered at IKN and in this MoU will provide innovative and sustainable solutions to address future city challenges. One of the collaborations that will be carried out is the development of a safe and reliable digital identity.
Meanwhile, the focus of this MoU is the development of an unmanned aircraft traffic management system. This technology is expected to optimize the use of air space, improve flight safety, and support the development of the unmanned aviation sector which is increasingly important in the modern era.
“This collaboration will also strengthen the cyber security sector at Nusantara,” he said.
He added, the presence of Thales and collaboration with OIKN is to collaborate to improve digital defense, protect critical infrastructure, and face and prevent increasingly complex cyber threats.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Ali Berawi, Deputy for Green and Digital Transformation, said that cooperation with various world companies will further enhance partnerships in the technology sector.
This collaboration will later enhance the implementation of smart and inclusive cities through the exchange of ideas, resources and strategies from Thales and OIKN.
“The collaboration with Thales will help build a smart city system through decision-making based on data to realize the vision,” he said.
Data centers development in Indonesia
In 2022, the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemenkominfo) inaugurated the construction of the first government national data center in Indonesia, which will be completed at least 2024 with an investment value of IDR 2.5 trillion coming from the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) of 15%, and 85% from the French Government.
This data center is the result of a collaboration between Indonesia and France and resulted in the development of a high standard data center. This construction was carried out by Ellipse, a French company that won the project.
Established in 2008, Ellipse Projects is a key player in the financing, design and implementation of large infrastructure projects.
The development is located in the Deltamas Cikarang industrial complex, Bekasi, West Java. This development will produce 40 petabytes, 200 terabytes of memory and will be supported by a power supply of 20-80 megawatts.
The PDN is projected to function as data consolidation and data interoperability that has been used so far through 27,000 servers spread throughout Indonesia.
Meanwhile, according to the Kemenkominfo, currently there are more than 80 commercial data centers in Indonesia with a total area of approximately 185,000 square meters (m2).
