CfDS Press Conference: E-Government Implementation is on the Rise, Indonesia’s Telecommunication Infrastructure is Still Weak

Yogyakarta, July 13^th 2020—Electronic Based Government System usage is rising in many countries in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, including in Indonesia. However, Indonesia is still lagging according to the indicator of the telecommunication infrastructure.That statement was made during a press conference to analyze the United Nations Digital Governance 2020 ‘E-Government Survey 2020’ report by the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) UGM researcher team. In that report, it is found that digital technology has been the go-to for many sectors, especially in the middle of quarantine. In the governance sector, e-government’s existence is meant to increase public service, society’s participation, as well as to increase transparency and accountability.

Based on that report, Indonesia ranks 88^th in the global scale of e-government implementation. Indonesia is one of the country that have a high rate of e-government system implementation, especially in the Online Service Index (OSI) and Human Capital Index (HCI). Aside from that, Indonesia also ranks high in the e-government development index compared to other ASEAN countries.

Despite the promising rankings, there are still several obstacles that need to be overcome in terms of Indonesia’s e-government system implementation. The first is the lack of accessibility. Hopefully, the e-government system implementation is not just centered in Jakarta or the Java island, but also spread all over Indonesia.

The second obstacle is that a stable internet connection in Indonesia is not spread evenly and the index score is also low. Digital transformation acceleration, equal distribution of development, as well as the development of telecommunication infrastructure is something that needs to be addressed by the government, especially in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic. Other than that, according to Anisa, one of the CfDS researcher, another aspect that needs to be improved is Indonesia citizen’s digital literacy.

The last obstacle is the lack of coordination between government institutions in providing digital based government service. This is something that needs to gain collective awareness and that needs to be continually improved in order to implement an efficient and effective e-goverment system.

The report also states that even though there is a rise of the e-government system, there is a significant disparity in the e-government system’s development in many countries. Heidira, one of the researcher in CfDS, said that the disparity between Asia countries is still wide. South Korea, Singapore, as well as Japan are countries in Asia with a comprehensive implementation and development of the e-government system.