Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Indonesian president Joko Widodo Thursday morning to discuss Microsoft’s plans to invest in data centers in the country, local media outlet CNN Indonesia reported. President Widodo and Nadella met while attending the Digital Economy Summit 2020 conference that was held in Jakarta on Thursday.
In his keynote speech, President Widodo said that the government will follow up on this investment plan. Indonesia’s draft data protection act is currently being reviewed in the parliament. Therefore, the president has promised Microsoft that the government will develop a simple regulation within a week in order to facilitate this move. The government wants to create a favorable climate for investment in the digital economy. This is because Indonesia’s digital economy is very promising and becoming the largest in Southeast Asia, the president said.
Meanwhile, Nadella said that Indonesia is an important market for Microsoft. In his speech, he talked about various programs that the company has been doing for Indonesia during its 25 years operating in the country. A key milestone is that Microsoft has trained more than 18 million Indonesians to develop their tech skills. The company wants to continue to contribute to the local economy going forward.
Microsoft is the fourth giant tech company to build data centers in Indonesia after Google, Alibaba, and Amazon. The Indonesian government also plans to build its own independently-managed data center that will be used to store and manage government data. The state-owned data center is due to be completed in 2022.
