One Data Indonesia: Building a Government That Delivers and an Economy That Competes

The quality of government increasingly depends on its ability to translate information into decisions and action. Citizens expect timely services, businesses need certainty, and policymakers require reliable evidence. These expectations share a common foundation: data that can be trusted, exchanged securely, and used responsibly. Indonesia’s proposed One Data legislation therefore carries strategic significance not only for public administration but also for national competitiveness.

KADIN Indonesia welcomes the draft One Data Indonesia Law. For the business community, stronger data governance is essential to improving the investment climate, raising productivity, and strengthening business certainty. Our support reflects practical needs: simpler administrative procedures, consistent information, and government decisions that businesses can understand and anticipate. The legislation offers an opportunity to establish a stronger foundation for all three.

Consider a small business seeking to expand. Its owner may need licences, financing, certification, and access to larger supply chains. When each process requires the same basic information to be submitted repeatedly, time and resources that could support production are instead absorbed by administration. The principle of submitting data once should therefore guide reform: information that has already been provided and verified should be reusable by authorised institutions for legitimate purposes, subject to appropriate access controls.

One principle should be made explicit as the draft is refined: data exchange between ministries and government agencies, when undertaken within their lawful mandates, should not depend on repeatedly signing memoranda of understanding, cooperation agreements, or bilateral contracts. The obligation to share data should rest directly on a clear legal framework and national governance arrangements. Operational standards, access permissions, and security procedures should enable implementation without requiring agencies to renegotiate the administrative basis for every exchange.

This simplification, however, must be accompanied by strong safeguards. Every exchange should have a defined purpose, clearly authorised users, access records, and accountability for misuse. Personal information, commercial confidentiality, and data affecting national security require protection proportionate to their sensitivity. Public confidence will grow when people can see that more convenient services are supported by effective protection of their rights.

The success of One Data Indonesia also requires an unambiguous allocation of responsibility. Data producers must remain accountable for the accuracy and timely updating of the information they generate. Data management and standardisation functions must ensure that information can be understood and used across institutions. Infrastructure operators must ensure secure and reliable exchange. Above all, effective leadership is needed to resolve disputes, establish priorities, and ensure that each institution fulfils its obligations.

Implementation should bring together the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform’s role in improving government processes and public services with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs’ role in the government’s digital ecosystem and infrastructure. Sectoral ministries and agencies must retain responsibility for the substance and quality of their data. These complementary responsibilities should translate into practical working arrangements and shared measures of success. Citizens should experience a coherent service journey even when several institutions are involved behind the scenes.

One Data Indonesia should also be understood as a common framework for governance, standards, and interoperability. Its architecture can preserve the responsibilities of authorised institutions while allowing information to move securely whenever it is legitimately needed. Technology choices should follow service requirements, security needs, and long-term sustainability. This approach would strengthen Indonesia’s data sovereignty through effective control over access, use, and development in the national interest.

For KADIN, the benefits must reach businesses of every size and across regions. More reliable data can help the government design industrial policy, identify workforce needs, map investment opportunities, and target support for small enterprises more effectively. The business community can contribute by identifying administrative bottlenecks, testing whether integration improves services, and providing input on implementation standards. Such collaboration should operate within clear access boundaries and respect for commercially sensitive information.

Progress should be measured through everyday experience: fewer requests for duplicate documents, shorter processing times, faster correction of inaccurate records, and greater certainty for citizens and businesses. Implementation should begin with priority services where improvements can be demonstrated, supported by clear targets, designated owners, and transparent evaluation. These early results can build public trust while providing practical lessons for wider implementation.

KADIN welcomes the draft One Data Indonesia Law as an opportunity to strengthen a government that delivers and an economy that competes. Our support carries a clear expectation that the legislative process will produce a framework that is robust, secure, and workable. When data can move responsibly across institutional boundaries, government becomes better equipped to serve, while businesses gain more room to invest, innovate, and create value for Indonesia.