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Young Indonesian innovators take center stage

Making history: Indonesia’s first Formula One racer Rio Haryanto opens up about representing Indonesia on the Grand Prix stage at CNN’s Talk Asia program

Teressa Warianto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, August 10, 2016

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Young Indonesian innovators take center stage

Making history: Indonesia’s first Formula One racer Rio Haryanto opens up about representing Indonesia on the Grand Prix stage at CNN’s Talk Asia program. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

Three of the country’s biggest game changers that are making waves both domestically and internationally are in the spotlight in CNN’s Talk Asia this month.

What do Rio Haryanto, Ronald Akili and Nadiem Makarim have in common?

According to CNN’s Talk Asia, they are Indonesia’s brightest innovators, representing a country that is rapidly changing and fast developing.

CNN’s Manisha Tank interviewed these three 20- and 30-something year olds, who in their own way have put Indonesia’s name on the global map.

They’re driven, talented, successful and most importantly, all very young, but these new-age pioneers are all determined to prove that Indonesia has got what it takes to shine on the world stage.

First, there is arguably the country’s main international superstar, Formula 1 racer Rio Haryanto who, at the tender of age 23 is making history and competing against the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the Grand Prix level.

“I think it’s going to take for sure a few years to get there, especially in Formula 1. You know, teams and cars make a huge difference and I am working my way up. At the moment, I am in a smaller team but I still learn. I hope that when I get to go to a better team in a few years, I have the chance to fight for the world championship,” he told CNN.

“I think Indonesian youth can achieve a lot. Maybe they are afraid whether they can achieve something like me or not. But I see that we are fellow countrymen and they see I managed to get to Formula One. I think this would give a boost for other youth to achieve their goals.”

Then there is Ronald Akili, the 35-year-old behind one of Indonesia’s hottest beach clubs who aims to export Brand Indonesia to the global stage.

At his notable Potato Head Beach Club Bali, Ronald opens up to Tank about what it takes to build the country’s first internationally successful business brand.

“It’s been a big mission for us, especially lately, about how can we export a modern, unique Indonesian approach globally instead of just simply importing international brands into Indonesia. And we try to do that from various disciplines, from architecture, music, fashion, culinary and bar,” Ronald explained.

He said most of the mission that he and his team had in bringing Indonesia forward was simply not for the sake of the company’s branding.

“I think we have something very beautiful here and I want to showcase that to the world,” he said.

“I believe through small movements, and you can see it [is] apparent in my generation. More and more, made in Indonesia is such a desirable product. And made in Indonesia is such a desirable movement from again, making films, music, fashion, art and that attracts, starting to attract different types of tourism, in Bali particularly.”

Finally, there is Nadiem Makarim, who finds inspiration in the traffic-infested city of Jakarta and currently boasts one of the hottest startups in Indonesia, Go-Jek.

Nadiem told Tank that he believed Indonesia was leading the pack in the mobile revolution, and definitely in Southeast Asia.

“Social media has imprinted the need for a smartphone to even be relevant socially in Indonesia, and I think that’s what really kick-started this whole app revolution. I believe in five to seven years almost everybody will have a smartphone, and will be engaging all kinds of transactional activities on their smartphone,” he said.

Despite facing fierce competition in the market from the internationally recognized Uber, Nadiem says he welcomes the competition.  

“I have great admiration for Uber and what they’ve done in the whole world and kind of opened up the concept of Appling transportation. In many ways, you know, we learn a lot from them and Uber coming into our space just validates how important our space is as a market.

“Competing against the biggest, the best technology player in this space, it’s a bit scary sometimes, but I feel like it’s an honor to be able to compete against them and learn through that competition,” Nadiem said.

On top of their successes in sports, business and technology, respectively, these three men are proud Indonesians — using their passion and drive to continue to change the game both domestically and internationally.

“I think my advice would be [that] you have to have a dream at first. I think all the things, all the most successful people [found] success because they had a dream, and if you do believe in your dream and if you do work hard for it, you know, hopefully if everything goes well one day you will achieve it,” Rio said.

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

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