Globalisation and information, communication, and technology exchange have brought Indonesia to a new phase of digital society. Government as the stakeholder should then change its interaction patterns with the wider public to meet public service access which is quick, integrated, and efficient. This is responded by the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM, Director General for Regional Autonomy in the Home Affairs Ministry, and Microsoft Indonesia by initiating a Pilot Project for Smart City training in 10 cities in Indonesia.
“Home Affairs Ministry has a strong commitment in Smart City development, and this program in general will be an important basis for government capacity enhancement in Indonesia,” said Ir. Gunawan, M.Sc, Director for Occupational Evaluation and Capacity Enhancement in the Directorate General for Regional Autonomy, opening the smart City training on Tuesday (11/10) in his office in Jakarta.
The Smart City training by the CfDS will run from October – December in selected cities, namely Semarang, Serang, Tangerang, Depok, Bekasi, Sidoarjo, Yogyakarta, Sleman, Kudus, and Surakarta. These cities will be equipped with comprehensive insight on the concept of Smart City and opportunities and challenges. It is expected that the training will give applicable and useful benefits for each city, and understanding of Smart City and e-government can be gained entirely by regional governments.
Commitment of UGM in the Smart City is shown by the engagement of related lecturers and experts who become trainers and facilitators for the training. The Ministry and Microsoft Indonesia also sent their representatives to become speakers and trainers.
This cooperation showed the synergy between governments, educational institutions and private sector in supporting the government programme related to Smart City programme in Indonesia. It is expected that the pilot project would trigger other secondary cities to start developing themselves through a digital platform that is suitable with technology developments.