Yogyakarta, August 13th 2021─Through its 49th Digital Series, the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) of FISIPOL UGM held a digital discussion with the title ‘Can Digital Payments Be the Foundation of Indonesia’s Economic Recovery?’ The Digitalk, which was guided by Anisa Pratita, tried to explore the digital payment perspective on Indonesia’s economic conditions from the Regulator’s side, represented by Fathahillah D. Wicaksana, as the Economist of the Payment System Department of Bank Indonesia and from the Industry Players side there is Felix Sharief who is the Head of Government Relations of DANA Indonesia.
Without going into detail at the beginning, Fathahillah shot his presentation by saying that the relevance of the pandemic to the increase in digital payments in Indonesia also illustrates one of the factors or keys to the success of Indonesia’s economic growth which reached 7.7%. For him, the existence of digitalization and innovation in the economic field also represents a survival key in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of innovation, our society is getting more familiar and normalized with the emergence of various policy innovations, be it Work from Home, Home Care Services, and even Fuel on Delivery. Fathahillah also highlighted that at least E-commerce Activities, Digital Financial Services, and Ride Hailing and Segmented Tech are now increasingly attached because they are bound by a large digital payment framework.
In following up on the rapid digitization of payments, Fatahillah said that Bank Indonesia had responded by issuing the Five Visions of SPI 2025 (Indonesian Payment System). Broadly speaking, the Five Visions of SPI 2025 include the Integration of the National Digital Economy, Ensuring the Functions of Bank Indonesia in the Money Circulation Process, Digitalizing Banking, Interlinking Financial Technology and Banking to Avoid Shadow Banking, and Balancing Innovation and Customer Protection, and National Interest. Not only that, Fathahillah also said that at least efforts to recover the economy in the next normal period will require synergy and joint efforts from all stakeholders, both from the Government, Bank Indonesia, and other Business Actors. Efforts to utilize the ongoing digitization of payments are expected to be an alternative solution in maintaining the productivity of the national economy so that orientation on balance and maintenance of purchasing power and economic growth can be achieved.
Meanwhile, from the side of Industry Players, Felix representing DANA Indonesia delivered his statement by placing more emphasis on the relevance of the role of Financial Technology during this pandemic which is considered to have the opportunity to increase user transactions. Especially with DANA Indonesia’s goal of realizing economic inclusion by implementing a cashless society, digital payment is a solution presented by industry players, including from DANA Indonesia itself. Some of Felix’s notes in viewing the role of Fintech during this pandemic, including helping to provide price relief to MSME for transactions, participating in transforming the level of payment distribution, especially G2P, and being able to play a role in reducing the gender gap by empowering female who still minimal access to digital payments. Felix also added an explanation regarding the issue of data privacy which has become a topic of discussion in the use of digital payments. From his side, Felix emphasized that privacy issues will depend on how concerned each business operator is on this issue, for example, DANA Indonesia itself has a Zero Data Sharing Policy, where DANA has committed to maintaining the confidentiality of user data from third parties. others who do not have the right to it.