Indonesia has a very crucial role in the ASEAN establishment. There were a lot of contributions given to the advancement of ASEAN collaboration. In the upcoming 2023, Indonesia is chosen as the Chair of ASEAN. This decision has challenged Indonesia to be more advanced in transforming the digital economy and the rapid development of science and technology in the middle of a pandemic. This topic was raised on the discussion of Strengthening Priority Economic Deliverable (PED) Indonesia's Chairmanship of ASEAN 2023 on Friday (30/4). In this discussion, several source persons were invited. They were UGM Chancellor, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D. Eng., Deputy for International Economic Cooperation Coordination, Rizal Affandi Lukman, Ambassador (Ambassador) of the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Indonesia (PTRI) to ASEAN, Padmo Sarwono, Executive Director of The Habibie Center, Hadi Kuntjara.
At this moment, Panut highlighted the important point towards the chairmanship, one of which Indonesia should improve science and technology, the industrial revolution of 4.0 towards its 5.0 society era. Those advancements forced social behavior to hold the key of technology, starting from mastering artificial intelligence, sensors, robots, machine learning, and big data.
"However, those masterships should also be in line with the skill and other human literacy such as the communication ability, creativity, and others," he said.
Rizal Affandi Lukman also added that this chair position was not far from Indonesia's role in the international forum such as G-20 and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Hence, Indonesia has plenty of opportunities to demonstrate its priority synergy in ASEAN, APEC, and G-20.
"The active involvement in these forums can support the government in stimulating our economic growth," said Rizal.
On the other hand, Ade Padmo Sarwono also emphasized the chairmanship focus on the economic aspects by prioritizing the national interest. Also, the actual issues in Indonesia's presidential of G20 better have to be in line with ASEAN. He believed that strengthening external collaboration regarding ASEAN economic growth could be an alternative in reviving economic growth after the pandemic apart from tourism, connectivities, and economic creativity.
Author: Gusti Grehenson
Photo: Setkab RI Document