In one of his first public acts following the death of his father, Ilham A. Habibie, the eldest son of the late former president BJ Habibie, took action by convening Indonesia’s top information and communications technology (ICT) stakeholders of business and government at a seminar recently. Acting in his role as director of the National ICT Council (Wantiknas), he presented a plan for a path for the nation’s digitalization. He won immediate support of big state-owned enterprises (Telkom, BRI and PLN), big tech companies (Facebook, Huawei, Google), a bunch of national ministries; emergent start-ups (Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Gojek, Grab). Acting in a cooperative atmosphere established in the aftermath of his father’s passing, he is activating their participation in a Meaningful Broadband Working Group. Mixing public and private investment, it aims to bring rapid ...

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