Satya Nadella

American technology giant Microsoft recently celebrated its 25-year anniversary of operations in Indonesia. The company achieved a value of US$1 trillion last year, becoming one of the United States’ most valuable companies. The Jakarta Post’s Eisya A. Eloksari sat down with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Feb.27 to talk about the multinational company’s vision in Indonesia and the country’s digital potential. Here is an edited excerpt of the interview.

Question: What is Microsoft’s vision in Indonesia after operating for 25 years?

Answer: We have been focused on effectively building the digital capabilities of Indonesia for the past 25 years. We’ve trained 18 billion people through our work in digital skills and we have 7,000 partners around our ecosystems that create digital jobs.

So, our role in the next 25 years is how to increase those achievements by an order of magnitude. Especially today when digital skills are important for every large bank, large energy company to small businesses and start-ups.

It’s even more important for Microsoft platform and tools to be broadly available so that every Indonesia organization can build their own technology. My vision is not to see organizations passively consuming technology but it’s about them creating technology or what we describe as tech intensity. It’s about making world class output that matters and that is the goal for what we’re doing across Indonesia.

The President [Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo] says Microsoft is building a data center and an official has told the media that the investment value reaches US$1 billion. Can you share with us your plan for the data center?

We are making significant investment in some sense. But, having had to grow up in a developing country myself, I think the key measure of success in investment is not [how much] the multinational investment is in the country but how is all that investment leading to amazing economic growth.

The Indonesian digital economy is thriving. So, we’re absolutely going to put in our capital, investment but the measure of success in what we do is going to be about the surplus that gets created in the long term.

We’re looking forward to the data center. The President was gracious to say that he wants to go fast in creating the trust principles around data centers, which I think is very important. It’s important not just for us but also for Indonesia because I think it will attract many more foreign investors, not just Microsoft.

Microsoft has invested in some start-ups in the United States, do you have any plans to invest in Indonesian start-ups?

Our success is not in any dollars we put in some unicorn. Because I think there is more capital in the world that is chasing these unicorns in Indonesia and elsewhere. What is scarce is that fundamental investment in helping every Indonesian organization build its own digital capability.

The unicorns of Indonesia don't need Microsoft capital. What Indonesia needs is a committed trusted platform company that is really invested in their own digital capability building. That's what we want to do.

Can you share your opinion of Indonesia’s digital talent and digital development opportunities the country can explore?

Indonesia is number six in GitHub and that's a great way to measure its digital talent. GitHub is where open source developers call home. And it's great to see Indonesian developers engaged at the core of the digital revolution and to see that contribution from the Indonesian developer community can get out. I think it’s unbelievable.

There are some unique challenges since Indonesia has 17,000 islands. Think about all sorts of unique clouding edge applications that need to be built. They are going to get built in Indonesia and it will go everywhere else in the world. So, I also am very excited to see how people — whether it's in agriculture technology or in energy or reforestation and others can develop technologies. I think the world can learn from Indonesian ingenuity.

What do you think about the recent omnibus law that would allow foreign workers to work in Indonesian start-ups without a permit?

I haven’t studied the specific implications of this regulation but I would speak from being an immigrant in the US myself. I think that any time you have others who can come and contribute to your human capital, knowledge and economy, there are broad benefits.

Of course, that also means you need to be able to think about immigration policies very carefully so that it benefits the overall society and economy. But overall, I think that having more expertise to help build more expertise locally is always a good thing.

Also, think about all the diversity. If the technology we build is going to be used by the world then we need to look like the world — be it diverse in genders, ethnicities and worldviews. Therefore, I think having diversity only helps make economies, companies and communities more globally competitive and more impactful.

What are your thoughts on Indonesia’s plan for a new capital city?

I realize there will be challenges in building new infrastructure and it requires a lot of investment and planning. We're very committed to playing our part. When I had a conversation with the President, one of the things that struck me was how to think about the most valuable resource, which is software. How can it be helpful? From the planning phase to the implementation phase.

We are in a very small way building our own campus. And when I look back at how we were planning and executing it, obviously it’s nothing in terms of the scale compared to what you all are doing with the capital but I feel that there is a new frontier in the way smart cities are built. We would love to contribute by bringing the best technology to bed and partnering, be it in planning or executing.

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