House of Representatives Proposes Establishment of New Single Data Indonesia Agency

The Legislation Body (Baleg) of the House of Representatives has proposed the establishment of a new agency specifically to handle data matters through the Single Data Indonesia (SDI) Bill.

Baleg Chairman Bob Hasan stated that the proposal has been discussed with expert staff and included in the draft of the bill currently under deliberation in Baleg.

“Previously from the expert team, I provided input that we have agreed on one agency to carry out the implementation of Single Data Indonesia,” said Bob during the continuation meeting of the bill on Wednesday (15/4).

He explained that the special agency would consist of data offices, data developers, data producers, data guardians, and data users.

“So the explanation is that the SDI agency is an agency, meaning it’s not a ministry, right? For now, that’s it,” said Bob.

The SDI Bill will consist of 130 articles in 16 chapters. Some points to be regulated include the division of authority; data standards, metadata, and technical infrastructure; data protection; supervision and evaluation; and public participation.

The Single Data Bill aims to make national baseline data the primary source in national and regional development, as well as to build an effective and efficient digital government to protect rights to privacy, personal data, and public information.

Deputy Chairman of Baleg, Sturman Panjaitan, previously assured that the Single Data Bill differs in domain from the Statistics Bill currently being discussed in Commission III of the House of Representatives.

According to him, at first glance, the two bills seem similar, but in substance, they are different, so the Working Committee team will study them carefully.

“Because if we don’t pay close attention, it seems like they are the same, between BPS or statistics and SDI,” said Sturman.