Professor Lukito Edi Nugroho of the UGM Faculty of Engineering delivered his inaugural professorial lecture entitled “Innovation, Integration, and Convergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Development of Smart Cities in Indonesia” on Thursday (November 23).
Professor Nugroho emphasized the development of smart cities must be connected to information and communication technology (ICT). In this regard, ICT is not only about using its products but also about the principles and good practices commonly carried out within it.
This manifests in innovation, integration, and convergence that can inspire strategies to realize intelligence in regional development.
The direction of intelligent development, he continued, began with Presidential Instruction Number 3 of 2003 regarding the national policy and strategy for developing e-government.
To implement this, the Ministry of Communication launched the Moving Toward 100 Smart Cities initiative in 2017, which is still ongoing.
This movement is realized in the form of assistance to regencies/cities in Indonesia in formulating the master plan for the development of smart cities. Starting with 25 regencies/cities in 2017, by 2022, 191 regencies/cities in Indonesia have successfully formulated their smart city master plans.
The professor said the initiative to develop intelligent cities had begun before the ministry’s movement was declared.
Jakarta is one of the regions that has implemented smart solutions since 2014 in all dimensions of smart cities. Since 2020, the transformation strategy towards a smart Jakarta has been implemented with an institutional approach to facilitate innovation and collaboration.
Another large city considered successful in applying smart city principles is Surabaya. The ministry’s movement has encouraged the touched regencies/cities to begin the transformation process to realize the characteristics of smart cities in their respective regions.
“These transformation processes are distinctive and unique, and it is hoped that they will give birth to distinctive smart cities as well,” Professor Nugroho said.
He said various obstacles to realizing smart cities exist, including broad aspects such as governance, economy, socio-community, environment, and law/ethics. Despite this, the most visible major issue is the ICT infrastructure’s availability, access, and quality.
The relationship between humans and technology and the leadership of regional leaders play a crucial role in the success of smart city implementation.
On a different note, the implementation of smart cities is also hindered by the characteristics of regional development planning. In Indonesia’s bureaucratic system, the procedures for preparing regional development planning are formally regulated through the Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 86 of 2017.
At a more detailed level, the preparation of work plans for regional apparatuses is also regulated through regulations issued by the Minister of Home Affairs every year. The approach used in these regulations is to strictly divide affairs, duties, and authorities to each regional apparatus.
“The impact of this strong structural approach is the formation of ‘structural walls’ that separate one regional apparatus from another, while smart cities naturally have cross-sectoral characteristics because the issues they deal with cannot be solved through a single development perspective,” he expressed.
“When the development of smart cities requires coordination and collaboration between regional apparatuses, this becomes difficult.”
In his concluding remarks, the information engineering professor stated that a more progressive approach is needed to accelerate the realization of smart cities in Indonesia. To generate acceleration, this approach needs to harness the potential of technology, especially ICT, in various regional development programs.
The utilization of ICT is not limited to ICT as a technological product alone, such as hardware, software, or data. The spirit, paradigms, and working mechanisms inherently attached to ICT must also be adopted.
Author: Ika
Photographer: Donnie