RI to invest $4b annually in information technology
JAKARTA (JP): Investments in Indonesia's information technology such as telecommunications infrastructure and multimedia facilities may reach US$4 billion a year, according to a senior official.
Secretary-general of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Jonathan L. Parapak, said yesterday that about 80 percent of the total investment would come from the private sector.
"In fixed telephone lines alone, we predict that total investment per annum will reach at least $2 billion. The figure will reach $3 billion if we include cellular services. Another $1 billion must be added if we include multimedia services," he told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting held as part of the five-day Asia-Pacific Telecom '97 Forum at the Jakarta fairgrounds, which will end Wednesday.
There are currently about 4.7 million fixed telephone lines and some 1.1 million mobile cellular phones in Indonesia.
In accordance with the rapid development of information and telecommunications technology, people have altered the way they communicate. Indonesia is also developing its information technology services to meet public demand.
In its recent report, "Challenging to the Network: Telecommunications and the Internet", the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ranked Indonesia 44th out of 45 reviewed nations in multimedia access. The ranking is based on penetration of telephone line density, TV set density and Internet hosts density.
Hoping not to lag behind further, a number of companies have created partnerships in Indonesia to prepare for the further emergence of multimedia services and the convergence of equipment and services from the telecommunications industry, computers, newspapers, movies, cable television, publishing, broadcasting and related commercial activities.
Telecommunications infrastructure is necessary and important for multimedia services.
At least five firms have been set up in Indonesia to run multimedia or multimedia-related services: PT YTC, PT Indonusa Telemedia, PT Multimedia Nusantara, PT Multi Media Asia (M2A) and PT Datakom Asia.
PT YTC is building a multimedia center claimed as the first integrated and largest multimedia facility in Southeast Asia.
Among the companies participating in the multimedia business are the state-owned companies PT Indosat and Telkom. State-owned companies are the only institutions allowed to run telecommunications services, including multimedia.
Cyber law
In a related development, Coordinating Minister for Production and Distribution Hartarto said yesterday that Indonesia had set up a ministerial-level coordinating body called Telematika Indonesia to prepare Indonesia to enter the global information society.
"The development and implementation of Indonesian information technology requires the establishment of law and regulations (Cyber Law) for intellectual property rights, electronic commerce, electronic data interchange and information culture creation," Hartarto said in his written speech at the Asia- Pacific Telecom '97 Forum.
The conference is focusing on competitiveness through multimedia and wireless technology in the 21st century.
Indonesia has also launched Nusantara 21, an information infrastructure project which is part of Indonesia's vision to make the country a fully-fledged member of the global information society by early next century.
Nusantara 21, a multibillion dollar communications project, is designed to connect the whole archipelago to the information superhighway. The project will include the development of multimedia technology in several big cities and wide-band super lanes by 2001.
Parapak said yesterday that the government also will set clearer definitions in multimedia services.
"We have to be more specific in licensing any firms dealing in multimedia services, whether as content or infrastructure providers, operators or something else," he said. (icn)