Poverty is a major problem in Indonesia, and economic calamity has led to riots, mob violence and death in the past. In the fourth installment of a multi-part interview, Borderless News Online talks to Sandiaga Uno, who is running for Jakarta governor next year, about the ways the Internet can help solve the country’s vast rich-poor divide.
“For instance, the Internet can give better access to education. I just met a lady who is providing free education through technology by way of the Internet,” he said, adding that the country needs to ramp up Internet infrastructure so that people at the bottom can have more access.
“With Internet, they can have a better way to educate themselves, to empower themselves, and have the proper training,” he said.
“I believe technology also could improve the healthcare,” he said, contending that technology could help with the early detection of some diseases that lower income people tend to face.
“And I believe, through technology also, funding can be provided to some of the early startups like the social entrepreneurs in terms of how they could identify the social problems around them and provide solutions,” he said.
While he said he’s not a big proponent of government intervention, he said the government should facilitation and favors collaboration, such as between the government and the private sector.
“I’m also not a big believer of hands free government, whereby government should not take any responsibility in some of this providing of education, healthcare and so on and so forth,” he said. “Government needs to be there, by way of supervising, sometimes regulate, but I guess the government needs to know its place, that it should create policy in order to empower the private sector as well as other players to be able to provide solutions.”
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