T

he government is exploring the possibility of requiring the country'€™s information and technology (IT) professionals to obtain certain certifications, a move which would enable them to tap into the growing IT market following the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) later this year.

Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said that his ministry, along with the Manpower Ministry and a number of IT associations, would discuss the plan this month and come up with an agreement in March.

'€œAt the end of this month or early in March, we expect to come up with something more detailed, including when the regulation will be imposed and when we will establish certifying institutions,'€ he told reporters on Monday.

Indonesia currently has 20 National Working Competency Standards (SKKNI) for the telecommunications sector. The competency is still low because Indonesia ideally needs between 40 and 50 standard items.

Indonesian Computer Software Association (ASPILUKI) member Didik Partono Rudiarto said that the number of Indonesian IT graduates could be 10 times higher than in Malaysia and Singapore, while the number of its certified IT professionals stood at only around half of those in the two countries.

There are currently around 700,000 to 800,000 university students majoring in IT nationwide, with between 60,000 and 100,000 graduating each year, according to an estimation by the National Education Standard Agency (BSPN).

BSPN member Eko Indrajit said that there were hundreds of IT specializations that would be targeted for certifications, both at executive and operational levels.

Among professional IT positions that might be required in ASEAN are systems analyst, network and systems administrator, ICT project management, information systems and network security and enterprise architecture design, according to the Communications and Information Ministry.

Rudiantara said that Indonesia would also discuss with ASEAN member countries to make its IT certifications equally recognized in other ASEAN countries through a mutual recognition agreement (MRA).

Such agreements have already existed for engineering and tourism services among ASEAN countries.

ASPILUKI'€™s Didik said that having IT certifications would be important for Indonesia'€™s IT professionals to widen their regional career opportunities, especially when there would be more influx of foreign IT professionals when AEC kicked off at the end of this year.

'€œThere are quite a lot of IT professionals from neighboring countries working here because they are internationally certified [...]. In the future, we want to have certain standards of certification for our IT professionals that are recognized everywhere in ASEAN,'€ he said.

Certified IT professionals '€” having globally or regionally recognized skills '€” will also help the country boost its efforts for a better broadband network infrastructure.

The government has previously announced that it will dedicate US$22 billion to a national broadband project over the next five years to provide affordable Internet access across the country.

In 2014, Indonesia was ranked 64th in global network readiness out of 144 countries, while Singapore and Malaysia were ranked 2nd and 30th, respectively, based on a World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

Network readiness is defined as a nation'€™s degree of preparation to participate in and benefit from ICT developments.