SBM ITB Jakarta held a Luncheon Talk forum with topic Digital Economy and Sustainable Future on Saturday, December 12, 2015. Came as speakers were Ariawan as Managing Director of Sinar Mas Digital Ventures (SMDV), David Batubara as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RPX Group, and Indrasto Budisantoso as CEO of Jojonomic. The talk was moderated by Arif Fajar Saputra, alumni of MBA Jakarta who is also known as CEO AMPlified.
The forum started with Ariawan as he shared his experience as an entrepreneur who focuses in the digital business area. Spent much his career in Japan, he talked about how Japanese entrepreneurs see Indonesia as one of the potential countries in the digital economy. “When I did my entrepreneur in Japan, a lot of Japanese entrepreneurs such as investor came to me and ask me whether I can help them expand the market, or guide them to make some investments in Indonesia,” said the Managing director of SMDV.
As Ariawan stated, that thing happened because, the digital economy in Indonesia is emerging and also people are actually always looking at Indonesia and India as the two biggest markets. “However, every business which starts up with e-commerce in Indonesia faces big challenge because infrastructure is not there yet. If you want to do e-commerce in Indonesia, the critical factors are payment infrastructure and logistic infrastructure,” explained Ariawan.
Moved to David Batubara, the CEO of RPX Group said that the hardest thing to face in the digital economy era is about the paradigm to move from old economy to new economy. “As a logistic practitioner, entering the digital economy era is quite challenging because what matters in the past is not relevant anymore with digital economy era now,” said him.
There is a big gap between people with an old paradigm of economy with those who have new paradigm about digital economy. David explained, people with the old paradigm mostly have a less passion for learning about digital economy. They are accustomed to doing what they usually do. “Digital economy is easier for business practitioners to change a technological thing than non-technological,” said him.
Meanwhile, Indrasto Budisantoso as a CEO of Jojonomic, a venture which focuses in financial technology area, shared his perspective about digital economy through his business experience. He said that there are a lot of opportunities came out from this industry. “Because of the digital economy, there are a lot of things that are changing. A new paradigm emerges.”
To close the session, Arif Fajar Saputra as a moderator summed up the forum with a note. As he stated, digital economy is something quite interesting nowadays. But, there is still a homework for Indonesia to face the new economy. “These digital things are blooming on this type of industries. But Indonesia is not ready yet for entering the digital economy era.”
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