VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A craftswoman puts up her batik products for sale online as part of the 2020 Batik Exhibition at the Malang Regional Representatives Building, East Java on October 5, 2020. (ANTARA FOTO/Ari Bowo Sucipto)

Bank Indonesia (BI) said it has joined the Task Force for the Acceleration and Expansion of Regional Digitalization (Satgas P2DD) to demonstrate its support for the government’s efforts to accelerate and expand regional digitization.

"BI's support for regional digitalization is through the creation of a payment system ecosystem that can support the integration of the national digital economy and finance, (and through) encouraging banking digitization through the Open Application Programming Interface (Open API), and developing Fintech and banking interlinks," executive director of the communication department of Bank Indonesia, Erwin Haryono, said in Jakarta on Friday.

The three supports, he said, will contribute to national digitization and regional financial management and are in line with the 2025 vision of the Indonesian Payment System Blueprint (BSPI).The central bank has also continued to launch initiatives to accelerate the implementation of the Electronification of Regional Government Transactions (ETPD) and digitization of payments by extending the use of payment instruments and channels, he informed.

"Such as the QR Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS), encouraging interconnection and interoperability of payment system services, encouraging the use of e-commerce platforms for tax and retribution payments, mapping ETPD profiles across local governments," he added.

In addition, the bank is working on enabling payment service providers to collaborate with local governments and regional development banks (BPD) to help BI Representative Offices in Indonesia to form the Regional Digitalization Acceleration and Expansion Team (TP2DD), Haryono said.

Through the P2DD and TP2DD task forces, BI would continue to coordinate with all related parties to encourage the acceleration and expansion of regional digitization, he added.The main task of the P2DD Task Force is to encourage electronic transactions, which can increase transparency of regional financial transactions, support governance, and integrate regional financial management systems to optimize regional revenues, Haryono said.

“As well as supporting the development of digital payment transactions in society in order to realize inclusive finance, as well as increasing the integration of the national digital economy and finance," Haryono added.

The P2DD Task Force is chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and comprises the Governor of Bank Indonesia, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Communication and Informatics, the Minister for the State Secretary, the Minister for Administrative Reform and Bureaucratic Reform, and the Minister for National Development Planning / Head of the National Planning and Development Agency.

At the regional level, TP2DDs will also be formed at the provincial, district, and city levels to strengthen coordination between the central and regional governments, Haryono informed. Such TP2DDs will chaired by regional heads//ANT