Up to 94.3 million of the 250 million population are Internet users and sales through e-commerce in Indonesia reached US$2.6 billion.

President Widodo urged agencies to create favourable conditions for e-commerce development, such as removing restrictions on communications and training human resources to boost the sector.

According to economists, e-commerce could support 56 million small and medium-sized enterprises, which contribute about 55% to Indonesia’s gross domestic product.

President Widodo believed e-commerce would be a platform for Indonesia to be the leading digital economy in Southeast Asia as the country strives for the total value of e-commerce to reach US$130 billion by 2020.

Indonesia is mapping out a project for e-commerce development, which is part of the new economic policy package covering seven issues such as human resources, finance, tax, consumer protection, cyber security, and logistics communications, with 31 initiatives.