Indonesia tests new digital ID system, calls on ASEAN to speed up DEFA negotiations

Indonesia is rolling out the limited release of its new digital government platform INA Digital. In this first phase, INA Digital services will be tested by 40,000 public users and 10,000 civil servant users, who will provide feedback.

The second phase will see testing of the app by 136 central and regional government agencies. The public release is expected in early 2025. The release is made up of three core services: INA Ku (a public service portal), INA Gov (a government administration portal), and INA Pas (a digital identity system).

INA Pas uses face biometrics and liveness detection to verify the identity of users. INA Pas then provides a single sign-on gateway to citizens, once they’re successfully registered, so they can access various government services.

INA Pas operates on Indonesia’s existing IKD infrastructure, which stands for Identitas Kependudukan Digital (“Digital Population Identity”). Indonesia’s digital identity system, IKD is intended to provide the country’s citizens efficient access to public services via a smartphone app.

Although only 3.8 percent of Indonesia’s population had activated IKD as of June, the country is promoting adoption through public education campaigns and collaborating with state and private companies. In addition, integration with services such as SATUSEHAT, a digital health records platform, is hoped to increase IKD activations.

In other news, senior government ministers of Indonesia and Singapore have agreed to expedite cooperation in the digital economy, conveying the importance of faster progress for a major regional initiative. The agreement was reached at the 24th ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Council Meeting in Vientiane, Laos.

“We need to ensure that ASEAN can complete negotiations according to our targets,” Airlangga said, emphasizing topics discussed with Gan Kim Yong, such as the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) negotiations, reports The Jakarta Globe.

DEFA includes the governance of digitalization, digital ID, cyber security, infrastructure, interoperability, retraining and reskilling, among others, in ASEAN.

The two countries are targeting 50 percent completion of the ASEAN DEFA negotiations by 2024, with substantial completion the aim for 2025. Launched last year, DEFA has been projected by the WEF to support a $2 trillion digital economy in ASEAN by 2030.

The digital economy agreement was one of the major outcomes of Indonesia’s 2023 ASEAN chairmanship, but the DEFA negotiations have been slow, reaching 14 percent in progress, as reported by The Jakarta Globe.

“I encourage the negotiating team, with the support of the ASEAN Secretariat, to optimize the time this year to achieve the target of 50 percent completion of negotiations in 2024,” Airlangga said, conveying a sense of urgency.

The ten members of the intergovernmental organization will have to agree to the various items of the framework, and challenges will inevitably arise.

Indonesia prioritizes data protection, cybersecurity

Data protection is top of the agenda for Indonesia’s three digital services – INA Pas, INA Ku, and INA Gov – as bolstering citizen trust is a priority as Indonesia accelerates digital government in the country.

INA Pas is a national digital identity platform intended for the public as a single sign-on to access various government digital services in INA Ku. INA Ku is a public service portal that provides various government digital services, such as health, education, social assistance, and police services. INA Gov is intended for civil servants as an administrative service portal to access personnel management applications.

Cybercrime is a major challenge, with 23 percent of all global cyber incidents in 2023 occurring in the Asia-Pacific region, according to IBM. Indonesia meanwhile faced a cyberattack on the government’s National Data Center facility in June, while personal data leaks have been a perennial problem.

Indonesia – which is Southeast Asia’s largest country and its biggest economy – is taking measures to combat this. The Personal Data Protection Law (PDP) will take effect on October 17 with data managers and those who handle personal data legally sanctionable should a data breach occur.

The PDP Law came into being as Indonesia needed a robust legal framework to protect privacy and build trust in digital services, as personal data usage grew in line with a growing digital economy. The PDP Law is said to give Indonesia global reach for data protection practices and aligns with international standards, such as the European Union’s GDPR.

The Indonesian government expects that INA Digital will be an exemplar for personal data protection as it tracks its digital transformation.

Addressing the growing cyber risk for Indonesia, Safdar Khan, a division president of Southeast Asia for Mastercard, believes there is an “urgent need for enhanced measures to boost cybersecurity in the nation,” he opined in The Jakarta Post.

“It is essential that everyone involved in the digital economy plays their part in combating fraud,” he also wrote. “For major entities, including large payment companies and financial institutions, this means developing and applying the most advanced tools, including AI-powered solutions, to meet fraudsters at the level on which they operate or higher.”

Khan observed that the Indonesia government is partnering with the private sector on digital security, highlighting the partnership between Indonesia’s Communications and Information Ministry and the Indosat-Mastercard Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. This partnership launched an online academy that will boost cyber awareness of Indonesians by imparting cybersecurity skills on an accessible digital platform, according to Khan.

In other news, PT Solusindo Antar Network signed an agreement with PT International Biometrics Indonesia. PT Solusindo Antar Network is part of a group company that provides services including payment gateway provider, system integrator, smart kiosk manufacturer, eWallet/eMoney switching remittance and aggregator in Indonesia. PT International Biometrics Indonesia is an identity management, biometric software solutions company, according to its website, with platforms using face, finger, and iris biometrics listed in the NIST benchmark. It is headquartered in Jakarta, with offices also in Singapore and Hyderabad, India.

Article Topics

ASEAN  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital trust  |  INA Digital  |  INA Pass  |  Indonesia  |  InterBio