On 27th April, 2022, the RUSSOFT IT Association held a meeting with the Trade Mission of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Indonesia, which was attended by Valentin Makarov, President of RUSSOFT, Sergey Rossomakhov, head of the Trade Mission, as well as RUSSOFT participating companies.
At the beginning of the meeting, Valentin Makarov noted that it is really valuable for the Russian IT-industry to know about the organization of the process of promoting Russian software products in Indonesia. This is due to the fact that the REC (Russian Export Center), the main source of support for Russian exporters, does not have the authority to promote services:
“The REC cannot help us, and services for the IT industry are very important, so we need to look for our own support tools. Personal meetings with trade missions of the Russian Federation in different countries contribute to this.”
Sergey Rossomakhov, trade representative of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Indonesia, recalled that their organization at one time proposed to create a separate working group to promote IT technologies and prepare a roadmap, but the necessary support was not received.
“We have been saying for a long time that IT technology is one of the most promising areas for cooperation between our countries, so it simply needs to be promoted. Meetings of representatives of IT companies of our countries should be held and should be supported. Cybersecurity, cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, smart city technologies are only a part of those areas where we are open to interaction. Therefore, let’s keep in touch so that this meeting will bring real benefits.”
During the pandemic, the IT sector of the Indonesian market has grown significantly, especially due to the fact that most companies have started using electronic services. At the moment, the country’s digital economy is one of the fastest growing.
There are 5 digital startups in Indonesia (Gojek, Tokopedia, Traveloka, Bukalapak, OVO) with a capitalization of $1 billion, which is more than 50% of the capitalization of all IT companies in Southeast Asia. The e-commerce sector is developing very rapidly, and by 2025 it is expected that the gross value of goods sold on the Internet sites of Indonesian companies will reach $100 billion.
The main trends in the development of the IT industry in Indonesia:
- Digital transformation: since this year the country is the chairman of the G20, it has chosen the issues of digital transformation as one of the highest priorities, and especially financial technologies (the emergence of new payment systems, online banking services, etc.) and improving financial literacy
- Artificial intelligence technologies that are actively used in the country, including in the banking sector
- Smart City: management of public services, transport, waste disposal, law enforcement agencies
- Use of electronic wallets and money
Based on these trends, the Trade Representative determined that the most promising areas of cooperation between Indonesia and Russia will be: electronic wallets, online insurance and financial management, online education, online medicine, Smart City, cybersecurity, cloud storage, and artificial intelligence.
Marketing plays an important role for promotion in Indonesia, as the Trade Representative said – you need to take part in exhibitions and events to increase awareness in the IT industry. Also, Russian software products can be difficult for Indonesian engineers / integrators, which often takes a lot of time to train partners.
Representatives of RUSSOFT companies were also interested in the issues of IT-business relations with educational institutions, the availability of communication with Indonesian colleagues, the level of state regulation in the IT-sphere, and other topics. All the answers can be found in the video recording of the meeting.
