Poor telecom facilities hamper e-commerce plans<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Poor telecommunication infrastructure and low
\ncomputer affordability have caused a slow adoption of the e-
\ncommerce in Indonesia, experts of information technology said
\nhere on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Arvino Mudjiarto, country director of Lotus Consulting &
\nProfessional Services, said Indonesia's telecommunication
\nfacilities, the backbone of the multimedia services, were still
\ntoo weak to accommodate the vast development of information
\ntechnology.<\/p>\n
\"The accessibility and affordability of computers are very
\nmuch limited that only people in big cities are ready for
\ncomputers and internet systems,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Still, most of them do not really understand about computer
\nfunctions and usages,\" he told participants of seminar and
\nexhibition on telecoms and information technology, the Techno
\nPre-Eminence 1999, held until Dec. 11 by state-owned telecoms
\ncompany Telkom.<\/p>\n
According to Indra Utoyo of Telkom's Multimedia Division,
\nthere were about two million computer users in Indonesia, but
\nonly 250,000 people of them actually possessed and used their own
\ndevices at home.<\/p>\n
Arvino said massive education in the use and benefit of
\ncomputers in addition to the improvement in the development of
\ninformation technology and more even distribution of computers at
\ndifferent areas were necessary if Indonesia did not want to be
\nleft behind completely in the technology race against neighboring
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is considered by analysts as several years behind
\nother countries in America, Europe and even Asia in developing
\nthe e-commerce. Indonesia has only started using the service in
\n1997, while the system itself was already famous and widely used
\nin America since early 1990s.<\/p>\n
The Reference Guide to E-commerce in South Asia classified
\nIndonesia as a country with slow adaptation to e-commerce with
\nusage growth around 16 percent and 18 percent in the recent year.
\nSingapore is voted as the most adaptive country with usage growth
\nreached over 28 percent.<\/p>\n
One of the fundamental causes to the slow adaptation is the
\nfact that the teledensity rate in Indonesia is still very low
\nwith only 3.6 percent of its over 200 million population have
\naccess to telephone lines, which are the basic requirement for
\ncomputer and e-commerce use.<\/p>\n
The other factor lied on the fact that there was only few e-
\ncommerce service providers operated in the country due to the
\nhigh investment and complicated technology, Indra said.<\/p>\n
\"As far as I'm concerned, Telkom is the only e-commerce
\nservice provider in the country which offer the most
\ncomprehensive services from virtual mall development to billing
\narrangement,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said there were currently five e-commerce service providers
\ncatering for the business-to-business e-commerce and only three
\nproviders for the business-to-customer e-commerce.<\/p>\n
Indra said more companies were currently involved in the
\nbusiness-to-customer e-commerce services, seeking for potential
\nmarket on the internet.<\/p>\n
He said no less than 500 sites were now available in the
\ninternet offering varieties of products and services to internet
\nusers.<\/p>\n
\"One of the biggest transactions made by our client users is
\nbooked recently by Agis electronic store, which recorded about Rp
\n90 million (US$12,857) in sales in two weeks period,\" he said.
\n(cst)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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