Ambassador Wang: China Ready to Support MBG Implementation with AI Adoption

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia Wang Lutong stated that China consistently supports the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) policy, with the Chinese business community willing to assist the programme’s smooth implementation, including through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “I understand that Chinese businesspeople also want to support the Free Nutritious Meal programme in ways they can,” said Ambassador Wang after attending the China-Indonesia Media and Think Tank Forum 2026 in Jakarta, Wednesday. He then mentioned his recent meeting with Chinese technology giant Tencent, which is currently running a project to implement AI technology for the daily planning of MBG. According to Ambassador Wang, Tencent revealed that they are currently designing a device that automatically detects the number of students present on a school day. The data captured by the device will then be relayed to the Nutrition Fulfilment Service Unit (SPPG), enabling them to determine the number of MBG portions to prepare and deliver to a particular school. The Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia assessed that Tencent’s current role reflects the strong commitment of partners in China to support the priority programmes of the Indonesian government under President Prabowo Subianto. “We can also learn from each other,” Wang said, hoping that the implementation of such technology could further improve the quality of MBG implementation. At the end of last month, National Economic Council (DEN) Chairman Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stated that the implementation of government technology (govtech) could help improve the governance efficiency of MBG implementation. His team is currently developing the technology as a digital ecosystem for integrating data from ministries and government agencies, which can be used for monitoring and evaluating various government programmes. “For example, with the existing data, the implementation of MBG can identify which regions need it and which regions can be made a second priority, and so on,” Luhut said in Jakarta, Monday (25/5). In addition to MBG, the use of AI in govtech for harmonising and compiling recipient data will also be implemented in the Social Assistance (Bansos) programme.