Indonesian business tycoon Sandiaga Uno said he would provide funds for some startups and utilize technology to run the city government if elected to Jakarta governor next year.
“Sometimes we even have to go the extra mile in providing maybe capital for startups,” he told Borderless News Online in an interview in March at his Jakarta office.
“Capital for these newly emerging companies in terms of how they can attract people,” he said, around 8 minutes 43 seconds into the interview.
Uno announced a few months back that he would run for governor of Jakarta in 2017. In a wide-ranging interview, the co-Founder of Saratoga Investama Sedaya added that technology would play a role in the city’s government.
“I would…(use) technology in terms of how to make full disclosures of all regulations that could be easily understood by the business community,” he said around 9 minutes 37 seconds into the interview, speaking in context of how he would cut the red tape in a bid to reform the economy and boost business.
Uno said he believes the fact that he’s a businessman and not a politician makes him a unique candidate for governor.
“With my business perspective I think I can offer a lot more breakthrough and innovations in terms of making sure, through entrepreneurship and through better business climate, you could create more jobs or you could contain rising prices and also you could contain the growing gap between the rich and the poor,” he said.
Uno’s statements come as a large chunk of the population is moving into urban areas, which could create chaos if it is not managed right, experts said.
Uno noted that Jakarta now boasts a population of around ten million and “we could easily see, in the next 14 years in 2030, that number grow to about 20 million because of the fast and rapid increase,” he said, adding that basic necessities such as housing, food, education and healthcare will be one of the challenges brought by increasing urbanization.
He noted that a better business climate is needed, as the World Bank’s 2016 ease of doing business ranking for Indonesia was no. 109.
That needs to be improved dramatically in order to attract more investments from abroad, he said, adding that the permit and licensing processes need to be easier, and the city needs to make sure there are enough tax breaks and tax holidays.
With enough hard work, cutting the red tape and bureaucracy and using technology, “we could be making our ranking to be top 40 by two to three years from now,” he said.
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