With President Joko Widodo’s new government in full flow, we have seen quite significant promises of regulatory change in the first 100 days. From Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim’s Merdeka Belajar (Free Learning) policy package, to simplification of regulations through the Omnibus Laws, people are anticipating regulatory breakthroughs in many different sectors for the next five years.
AmCham Indonesia’s IT and Teleconnectivity Committee held its first meeting of the year on January 22 in WeWork Revenue Tower. It was well-attended by representatives from member companies and the US Embassy. Setting the scene for this year, the meeting was packed with updates on advocacy issues, discussion of the format of 2020 committee meetings and industry-related issues the committee might follow up on this year.
Getting right into issue updates, the committee talked about the new E-Commerce Regulation, which came into effect in late November 2019. Members expressed some concerns regarding this regulation – which was issued without any public consultation – particularly on how it will affect both small and large businesses in terms of cross-border trade, licensing, data management and potential overlaps with existing regulations. AmCham is currently planning a focus group discussion (FGD) to address these pressing issues.
US Embassy representatives gave a brief update on the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) review, which has been ongoing for the past year, followed by the latest update on the Personal Data Protection draft law, which has finally been received by the House of Representatives (DPR) as of Jan 24. The committee also talked about the implementation of Government Regulation no. 71 year 2019 (GR 71) – better known as the revision of GR 82 on data localization – which regulates where data is located and how it is managed. The GR, which has been one of AmCham’s main advocacy subjects, was finally signed in October 2019, and industry is currently waiting on how the derivatives of this regulation will take shape. Last but not least, the committee also discussed the Cybersecurity draft law, whose discussion process fell through due to changes in the administration.
The conversation then shifted into a more administrative area, including introduction of the committee’s new format, which can hopefully increase the frequency of engagement with the government and other stakeholders, as well as allowing issue updates and advocacy efforts to be more efficient and effective. The meeting concluded with a short discussion on potential issues and activities to pursue in 2020.
For more information or to get involved in the committee, contact Ellisa Kosadi at [email protected].
