National

This publication is only available in Bahasa Indonesia.

The COVID-19 pandemic has proved that digital transformation is a must for the public sector. In fact, the initiative to go digital in Indonesia was started when Presidential Instruction No. 3/2003 on National Policy and Strategy on e-Government was issued and later re-intensified in 2018 when Presidential Regulation No. 95/2018 on e-Government was issued. However, it takes digital skills in public sector to implement e-Government. In reality, only limited numbers of government employees have digital skills as explicitly written in Presidential Regulation No. 95/2018.

Greater female labor market participation benefits not only women's empowerment and the well-being of their families, but also the economy as a whole. Yet the labor force participation of women in developing countries is relatively stagnant, even with higher levels of economic development and better educational attainment. Women are also more likely to work in the informal sector and unskilled jobs. The arrival of the internet and the subsequent creation of internet-based jobs may positively affect women's labor market outcomes.

This book presents twelve original chapters divided into three parts that discuss the achievements and challenges of Indonesia’s transformation since the fall of Suharto’s authoritarian regime in 1998. The fundamental transformation from an authoritarian to a democratic system is analyzed by researchers, experts, and NGO officials from various academic disciplines and from Asia at large (Japan, Korea, and Indonesia).

This paper presents an investigation of the causal impact of COVID-19, through lockdowns, on household income, income expectations, consumption of durable goods, and budget allocation in Indonesia using high-frequency data from the monthly Bank Indonesia consumer survey with more than 176,000 respondents. The authors find that COVID-19 lockdowns have a large and significant adverse impact on households’ income, expectations, and consumption.

Digitalization has contributed substantially to the global economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Indonesia’s case, digitalization even sustained the country’s economy during the pandemic. It is only appropriate that the government continue accelerating its digital transformation in postpandemic recovery.

The Government of Indonesia increased the fuel prices in the third quarter of 2022 to reduce the burden on the national budget. Other than due to the global inflationary pressure on the national budget, the fuel subsidy in Indonesia disproportionately benefits the rich more than the poor (DJP Kemenkeu, 2022; Dartanto, 2013).

Indonesia is facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty as the war in Ukraine fuels a global costof-living crisis. The Covid-19 virus continues to mutate, with new variants emerging at greater frequency and infect hundreds of thousands of people. By the time this report is written, experts warn Indonesia of the latest Covid-19 virus mutation, the XBB subvariant. Meanwhile, the effects of the climate crisis are reaching a tipping point.

In early 2016, President Joko Widodo visited Silicon Valley where he expressed his goal of shifting Indonesia away from commodity dependence and creating a more technologically advanced and digitalized economy (Sipahutar 2016). This shift requires modernization of digital infrastructure, improved scientific research, and greater innovation among large companies, but also support for startup innovation and creativity. The government has implemented a range of policies and programs in line with the transformation agenda.