President Receives Plug and Play CEO

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - President Joko Widodo received Saeed Amidi, CEO and founder of technology company Plug and Play, at the Merdeka Palace here on Tuesday evening to discuss ways to develop technology for the e-commerce industry.

"He came to Indonesia to follow up on his meeting with the president in Silicon Valley last February. At the meeting, the president invited Saeed to invest in Indonesia which is currently developing e-commerce industry," Communication and Information Minister Rudiantara said in a press conference at the Presidential Office. Earlier, he accompanied the president during his meeting with the Plug and Plays CEO.

At the meeting, the president was also accompanied by Minister/State Secretary Pratikno and Chief of the Creative Economy Board, Triawan Munaf.

Rudiantara noted that the 14th economic policy package issued on November 10 covers the development of e-commerce industry.

As per Rudiantara, Saeed believes that Indonesia has the potential to develop e-commerce industry on a larger scale in view of the fast growing market in the country.

As part of the policy package, the government is preparing a roadmap for the development of the e-commerce sector.

The roadmap consists of 31 initiatives to address seven key issues in the e-commerce sector, comprising human resources and education, access to capital, tax incentives, consumer protection, cyber security, logistics and communication infrastructure.

Nearly 93.4 million of Indonesias 250 million strong population is avid internet user. Just in 2014, e-commerce transactions in the country were valued at US$2.6 billion.

The Communication and Information Minister has set himself the target of completing the development of the seven sectors in 2018 to achieve the e-commerce market value target of US$130 billion by 2020. (WDY)