Government Prepares 'Digital Single ID' to Strengthen Social Assistance Distribution

The Chair of the National Economic Council (DEN), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has stated that the government is preparing an artificial intelligence (AI)-based ‘digital single ID’ system to strengthen the distribution of social assistance and data-driven governance. In a press briefing at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday, Luhut said the system is targeted to begin implementation by the end of this year to improve the targeting accuracy of social assistance while reducing potential budget leakage.

“The digital single ID may be running by the end of this year, so that all social assistance or direct cash transfers will be better targeted and can save a significant amount of budget,” Luhut said. He explained that the future government will increasingly rely on AI-based digitalisation to integrate public data and various government programmes. Through this integration, the government can identify and monitor the profiles of aid recipients more accurately, including changing the subsidy scheme from a commodity-based one to one based on the beneficiary.

“Subsidies will no longer go to goods. Subsidies will go directly to the recipients. On average, this social assistance is in the form of cash transfers of around Rp5.4 million per person,” said Luhut. In addition to social assistance, the digital single ID system will also be used to support the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through business actor data mapping.

“This will be grouped using AI. We can encourage MSMEs by giving good scores because the data of business actors can be monitored clearly,” he said. He added that Indonesia has the potential to become one of the countries with the largest population implementing an integrated, AI-based digital government system. With a population estimated to be approaching 300 million, this system is considered capable of improving the quality of public services through more effective programme monitoring.

“Everything will be monitorable with this system,” Luhut stated. He also affirmed that the development of this digital system is carried out by domestic talent as part of strengthening Indonesia’s human resource capacity in the digital transformation of governance. “And once again, this system is built by the children of Indonesia,” Luhut concluded.