Inside Indonesia’s new communications agency: Shaping President Prabowo’s message

President Prabowo Subianto's new Presidential Communication Office (PCO) is an agency tasked with delivering strategic narratives, building a full understanding of policies, and ensuring that the achievements of flagship programmes are effectively delivered to the public.    

"As a deputy for information dissemination and media, I am tasked with ensuring that every achievement and strategic policy of the government can be widely understood by the public," says PCO's Deputy Chief, Noudhy Valdryno, to GovInsider. 

According to Valdryno, the communication structure within the Presidential Palace has undergone a transformation during the government transition.

Previously, it relied on the Presidential Palace Protocol and Media Bureau (BPMI) and now it is complemented by the PCO.  

"The PCO focuses on handling the president's policy communication, while the president's daily communication functions remain under BPMI," he explains.  

Valdyrino shares how digital technology can both support presidential communications, as well as the president's desire to make his flagship programmes successful. 

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Leveraging AI for policy dissemination  

Valdryno believes that technology can improve people's daily lives.   

He brings this belief to PCO by utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to support policy dissemination, in addition to helping him complete routine tasks more easily. 

According to him, AI is used to produce content related to programme dissemination and gather responses to a policy.  

“For example, President Prabowo's flagship programme, free nutritious meals for children, with the help of AI, data spread across various institutions can be processed into precise policy recommendations," he says.

The challenge is how to integrate data related to policies, as a lot of data on one policy is managed by various agencies, he adds. 

The PCO is also considering leveraging generative AI (GenAI) for dissemination content production.  

Valdryno is inspired by China, which has introduced an AI agent called Manus that can produce hundreds of contents in one click and will change the information media landscape in the future.   

Translating the President's digital narrative 

According to Valdryno, President Prabowo's Asta Cita vision positions digitalisation as a key driver of the country’s development, justifying the use of digital technology. 

President Prabowo's flagship programmes that use digital technology include the SATUSEHAT application that makes it easier for people to access free health screening programmes, he adds.

GovInsider reported earlier that President Prabowo's digitalisation vision is geared towards achieving eight per cent economic growth, improving people’s welfare, as well as strengthening governance to be more efficient and transparent.

"Currently, the government through the National Economic Council is developing the National Socio-Economic Single Data (DTSEN), which allows for more accurate distribution of social assistance to the underprivileged," he says.

Making digitalisation the government's agenda 

As set out in the Visi Indonesia Emas (Golden Indonesia Vision), Indonesia is pursuing its long-term development strategy to become a developed country with a high per capita income by 2045. 

According to Valdryno, President Prabowo is ambitious for most of these goals to be achieved by 2034.

"The president wants every ministry and agency to make digitalisation a joint agenda so that development goals can be achieved faster and catch up with other countries." 

He highlights several ministries that have made progress in digitalisation such as the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, the Ministry of Communications and Digital and the Ministry of Finance, enabling them to achieve their goals faster.   

The challenge remains on how to harmonise the steps between institutions so that it becomes a common progress as a nation. 

"The President always emphasises that digitalisation is very important so we must have a national consensus on the importance of planned digitalisation," he says.

Bringing innovation culture to government  

Prior to handling strategic communications at the Presidential Palace, Valdryno had experience managing communications and public policy in Big Tech companies such as Meta and Ant International.

According to him, the most striking difference between the way the private sector works, and the bureaucracy is in terms of speed and agility. 

"The jargon ‘move fast and break things’ doesn't apply to government, where layers of decision-making and caution are important ... We want to be fast but within the rules."   

He notes that bureaucratic ways of encouraging innovation worked when he and the government transition team helped rebrand the Ministry of Communications and Informatics into the Ministry of Communications and Digital.     

This cross-sector experience also shaped his vision of bridging the public and private sectors in terms of technology. 

"For the private sector, bureaucracy is often considered complicated. But after I got inside, I wanted to find a ‘middle way’ so that government can support private innovation and vice versa," he says.