Peruri invites tech innovators to support formation of GovTech Indonesia

“The combination of government and technology, GovTech, is a very powerful thing to revolutionise the way we carry out government and provide better services to the community,” said Dwina Septiani Wijaya, President Director of Peruri, or the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of Indonesia.

He was giving a keynote speech at a seminar entitled “Public Services Reimagined: GovTech Solutions for a Better Tomorrow” in Jakarta.

After intensive discussions, the Government has appointed Perum Peruri to carry out the functions of the digital government office, GovTech Indonesia. This decision has been approved by President Joko Widodo and will soon be legalised through a Presidential Regulation in 2024.

According to Dwina, the company welcomed the appointment of GovTech Indonesia and was ready to leverage innovative solutions within the public sector. GovTech will improve the efficiency of government processes and provide public services that are seamless, transparent and fast.

“The innovation products produced by GovTech aim to facilitate better communication between citizens and the government so that the government knows what the community’s main needs are,” said Dwina.

In carrying out its duties as GovTech, Peruri will focus on the three most important aspects: citizen-centric public services, universally accessible platforms, and a whole of government approach to modernising the public sector.

According to the Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, Abdullah Azwar Anas, the decision to appoint Peruri was attributed to the enterprise having succeeded in rapidly transforming from a conventional company to a modern company operating in the digital technology sector.

Peruri gathers innovators in a regulatory sandbox

To support organisations in carrying out GovTech functions, Peruri has launched Peruri Sandbox as a forum for innovation developments, including startups.

The Peruri Sandbox is a playground for innovators and digital ecosystem enablers to contribute, experiment and share their ideas to support the public sector, said Peruri’s Digital Business Director, Farah Fitria Rahmayanti.

“We open the widest possible opportunities for individual innovators, startups, software makers, or anyone who has bright ideas to help the government improve its services to citizens,” Farah told GovInsider.

The sandbox will prioritise public services such as digital identity, digitalisation of education and health, and digital payments. The mentoring process will involve multiple public sector stakeholders such as the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises, Bank Indonesia, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Ministry of Health, and funding companies.

Through the regulatory sandbox, Peruri will become a bridge between innovators and regulators, to ensure that every innovation produced will adhere to relevant regulations.

According to Farah, innovators can submit input regarding regulations to the government. The government can also see whether regulations match the needs of innovators and the private sector or not. If regulations are deemed not suitable, then business processes can be simplified.

“When we talk about innovation, we talk about continuous improvement and user journey. Regulations will adjust. It can be added or trimmed depending on the needs of innovators in the ecosystem,” he continued.

The Peruri Sandbox program will last for five months, starting from onboarding to incubation. Each participant will be asked to test their innovation in a sandbox environment on a limited scale. Before entering the incubation stage, participants must go through a registration, presentation, selection, and mentoring process.

Peruri’s transformation into a digital security company

Peruri is an example of a state-owned enterprise that has successfully carried out a transformation. For decades, Peruri was only known as a company that printed banknotes and coins for transaction purposes. However, as non-cash transactions increased, the company transformed from a security printing company to a digital security company.

Farah explained how the digital transformation process in Peruri was not easy: “We were printing paper money at a time when everything was becoming digital. Many say we are running a sunset industry. So, we adapted by producing hybrid products.”

In the last five years, Peruri launched several digital security products such as e-stamps for official government administration documents and public services, Peruri Code for product authenticity and security, Peruri Sign to guarantee data confidentiality and document security, and Peruri Graph as a comprehensive privacy and cybersecurity strategy.

In the near future, Peruri will also launch digital applications in accordance with GovTech assignments such as electronic passports and electronic land certificates.

Security-first approach by Peruri 

“Why is ‘security first’ the main idea of our product line? Because we started from the money printing business, we understand very well that authenticity and security are paramount. In other companies, security is number one, while at Peruri security is the core of the business,” Farah explained.

According to Farah, Peruri’s assignment as GovTech Indonesia will encourage digital transformation in the company to the next level. There are two things that need to be prepared: strengthening the technology system at Peruri and increasing the internal capacity of Peruri employees to be able to carry out assignments.

The challenge lies in the digitalisation culture in the organisation. System capacity can be strengthened by adopting the latest technologies. However, increasing employees’ digital competence must be a process through education and training.

“The key word is mindset change. We can do anything if we have determination and will,” concluded Farah.

This article was originally written in Bahasa Indonesia here, and has been translated by Yogesh Hirdaramani.