VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has called on the youth to be more creative in catching opportunities to compete at the national and global levels amid the challenge of digitalization.

"After graduating there are several choices for graduates, whether to become professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, writers, or whatever is the best choice. For graduates, this is a challenge to be more creative and smarter in observing opportunities," he said before 1,784 graduates of the National University at the Jakarta Convention Center on Sunday.

Graduates must stay connected to universities, because perpetually learning would assist in facing the everchanging dynamics, therefore helping alumni in pursuing careers, he said.

Likewise, universities would be greatly helped by alumni who successfully provide feedback on their knowledge to the campus. An exchange like this would enable university to have extensive information and possess knowledge of the changes that occur.

This was a challenge for everyone, particularly the government, he said. "The government only needs to provide facilities and the government prepares financing facilities, including People's Business Credit and other facilities."

He expected for students who want to become entrepreneurs, including in the digital sector, to take advantage of the trainings offered by the government because Indonesia is the largest digital market in ASEAN.

Regarding digital transformation, which was one of the themes raised in the G20 presidency, Indonesia had done many things ahead of other countries.

"In terms of infrastructure, we are ready with 5G, we are ready with inter-island fiber optics, we have satellites, and now we are talking with Space X (through) Telkom about low earth orbit satellite, which is a new technology to connect islands in Indonesia," he detailed.

The fact that telemedicine applications reached 21 million downloads in 2021, while it was only 2 million prior to COVID-19, showed that Indonesia's digital transformation was rapid compared to other countries.

"In the field of digitalization, at the time of COVID-19 the government launched a program called G to P or Government to People, that is from the government to the community, one of which was the Pre-Employment Card program, of which a few days ago the alumni (of the program) were accepted by the president," he said.

He said that the Pre-Employment Card program has been accessed by 115 million people, more than 88 million have been able to download and qualify, but 12.8 million had been received in 2 years, and this kind of program could not be done merely with non-digital program (Antaranews)