The Indonesian E-commerce Association (idEA) appointed Bima Laga as the new Chairman for the 2020-2022 management period, replacing the last one, Ignatius Untung. Bima currently serves as AVP of Public Policy and Government Relations at Bukalapak.

While at the association, he has joined the two previous management. First, as the Head of Tax, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure. Second, as Chair of Indonesia’s Digital Economy. Armed with his previous experiences, he wants to strengthen the digital economy and keep it as the focus of idEA’s work during his realm.

In a virtual interview with a limited number of media last week (4/9), Bima said that he wanted to achieve the mission to maintain the existence of idEA as an association in the digital economy, as a partner of the government and regions in the planning of regulations in the creation of Indonesian business climate.

Next, expand the opportunities for micro, small, and medium businesses to take advantage of the digital platform by facilitating onboarding activities and digital sales training. Another mission is to make idEA an independent and open association as a space for all lines of digital economy business.

“In the short term, we want to help make it easier for MSMEs onboarding to digital platforms, that’s one of them. For the long term, we want the marketplace to compete at the international level, therefore, exports will be much easier,” he explained.

In order to harmonize these missions, Bima arranged the management of idEA under 10 working groups (pokja). Each will represent issues and solutions to problems in the digital economy. The 10 working groups are a.l. trade and export sector, data and cybersecurity sector, consumer protection sector, MSME empowerment sector and creative economy, research, and development sector.

Next, the field of taxation and financial technology, the field of logistics and transportation, the field of manpower and human resources, the field of local government relations, and the field of public communication.

Basically the working group was much more detailed and specific than the previous management under Untung. At that time, Untung divided it into four, government relations, external relations, internal relations, and business development & supporting services.

Moreover, the preparation of this work program on these two management offices is a form of the widening focus of idEA’s work which is no longer just an association for e-commerce players, but for the digital economy. The membership contains not only by e-commerce players but also by verticals in other technology industries.

Bima will continue several programs that have been implemented during his previous management to support the plans he has made. One of them is the idEA Works job fair program to attract more digital talents in vocational schools who are ready to work and in accordance with industry needs.

In this regard, he continued, the association is in discussion with the edtech players to collaborate in order to support the mission of preparing new talents. Especially during this pandemic, the entire process of absorbing new workers has shifted to a digital platform. Therefore, talents must be prepared from the start.

“During the pandemic, according to BPS, the still-growing industries are pharmaceuticals and technology. The rest is minus, it means that the technology industry is promising and there is momentum for a rebound. ”

In terms of strengthening regulations such as PP Number 80 of 2019 concerning Trade Through Electronic Systems (PP PMSE), Bima said that his team would continue to oversee its implementation and participate in delivering more effective input. Cyber ​​issues and consumer data protection have recently become sensitive issues and need to be addressed immediately.

During this pandemic, associations played a role in encouraging MSMEs to go digital. You do this by actively holding online workshops that provide beneficial education and mobilizing the National Proud Movement of Indonesia (Gernas BBI). On this occasion, during the May-August 2020 period, it was said that there were 1.6 million new entrepreneurs who joined.

“This is a program of economic recovery by shopping. If people buy local products, then we can move the economy, regardless of what products they buy. The hope is that this will become a sustainable activity and become a roadmap for the country’s economic recovery in the future,” Bima concluded.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian