The CSIS, however, found internet utilization for businesses remains low.

“More than 60 percent of respondents use the internet only for social networking, while the use of internet for more productive activities is still limited, as people only seldom use social media to support their business,” said CSIS economic department head Yose Rizal Damuri on Tuesday.

On average, only 30 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) use the internet for their businesses. Most respondents who do not use social media for their businesses are not sure about its effectiveness to promote their product (40 percent), while another 33 percent do not know how to use social media.

“It is very unfortunate because in reality a lot of people in eastern Indonesia have their own initiative to start MSMEs,” he said.

Eastern Indonesia covers Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Papua. In its research, the CSIS included several cities such as Palu, Kendari, Manado, Gorontalo, Mataram, Kupang and Manokwari.

In an effort to increase digital skill of MSME players, especially those who live in eastern Indonesia, Facebook Indonesia launched a digital campaign dubbed Laju Digital on Tuesday.

Facebook Indonesia public policy head Ruben Hattari said the program would kick off in September and would give digital training skills and workshops to people in 15 cities in Indonesia, of which 10 are located in eastern Indonesia.

“This campaign will focus on providing training and workshops on how they can develop their business by utilizing the internet. For example, they will learn how to utilize Facebook to promote and develop their business,” said Ruben.

“The first city we will visit is Gorontalo. In every city, we plan to have two days of training and workshop programs,” he said, adding that the program is free.

Facebook is collaborating with local institutions, the Communications and Information Ministry, the Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Ministry, as well as the Education and Culture Ministry to run the program.

Aside from targeting to improve the digital skills of MSME players, Laju Digital is expected to boost the digital skills of job seekers and communities.

Du’Anyam, a social enterprise that produces and distributes weaving handicrafts by empowering women in several eastern areas in Indonesia, such as Larantuka, East Nusa Tenggara, and Nabire, Papua, warmly appreciated the Laju Digital program initiated by Facebook.

Du’Anyam’s chief of community development and partnership, Hanna Keraf, said digital skills were essential to foster economic inclusiveness in eastern Indonesia. Based on Du’Anyam’s
experiences in empowering people, one of the biggest challenges in implementing its social enterprises in eastern Indonesia is to improve digital literacy of their employees.

“When we were starting our business in Lembata, East Flores, for example, there were only three people who could use email and only one of them who could use Google Drive, from a total 20 people. And that was such a big challenge for us since the market needs fast service,” she said, adding that Du’Anyam needed to conduct in-house digital literacy training for its employees.

“I’m very glad that the eastern part of Indonesia is given attention by authorities and Facebook in terms of digital literacy, and we welcome cooperation with Facebook through Laju Digital, starting from training for our employees,” she said.

According to Facebook’s latest data, there are 115 million Facebook users in Indonesia per month. That is 80 percent of a total 143 million internet users in Indonesia in 2017.

However, despite a huge number of internet users in Indonesia, Rosdiana Sipayung, deputy of production and marketing division of the Cooperatives and SMEs Ministry, said the number of SMEs in Indonesia using the internet was only 4 million.

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