Experts from the Australian National University (ANU) have warned that Australia needs to step up and offer Indonesia an alternative for digital training and development after China has become a dominating force in Indonesia’s cyberspace.
“And it should be short-term and technically focused to help Indonesia meet its critical ICT skills shortage,” he said.
“Chinese firms have become the cybersecurity partner of choice in Indonesia. This is not only because they provide the hardware but also enormous training at all levels of society, from government officials down to rural students.
“The programs are huge and are being provided by major companies like Huawei,” van der Kley said, noting Huawei alone is potentially training tens of thousands of Indonesians annually and therefore steering Indonesia’s current and future tech leaders towards Chinese technology.
Van der Kley noted that despite Indonesia’s deep animosity towards China, there have been next to no complaints about China’s dominant position in telecommunications and cyber there, which he puts down to rich liberal democracies failing to deliver the kind of benefits that Indonesia seeks.
Indonesia is still attempting to close the economic divide with advanced industrial economies, and as an emerging economy, it has seen that the future of jobs and wage growth is in the tech-led industries, the report explains.
The Need to Provide Vocational Training
The report outlines key steps Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. can take to be competitive in Indonesia, part of which is by providing vocational training.Co-author of the report Benjamin Herscovitch said Australia, in concert with other Quad countries, needs to offer a vocational technology training program large enough to genuinely improve Indonesia’s tech capacity, providing an alternative to Chinese state-backed training programs.
“The first step for the new Australian government—and hopefully the Quad—is to provide Indonesia with large-scale, short-term technical training. This is what they want. We are currently ceding that ground to China,” he said.
“Large tech firms from Quad countries should contribute their technology and expertise to an internationally accredited vocational program. Australia’s vocational education and training sector should also help develop people-to-people and educational links with Indonesia.”
The report concludes that it is in Australia’s interest that Indonesia meets its development potential and providing vocational training is one of the most consequential actions Australia could take to achieve this goal.
Helping Indonesia Address Cybercrime
Australian tech training could help Indonesia handle major security threats like cybercrime, according to another of the report’s authors Gatra Priyandita, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.He said the most urgent security threat for Indonesia is cybercrime, noting the country is highly vulnerable to it.
“Data security is poor, and Chinese firms are seen as partners for swift solutions,” he said.
The report states that the Indonesian government is well aware of the threat of Chinese espionage and that heavy reliance on Chinese technology could lead to political pressure.
However, government officials are also concerned about the risk of espionage from Australia and the U.S., so from Indonesia’s perspective, cybersecurity vulnerabilities will be present regardless of who supplies the underlying infrastructure.
While Australia has stressed the cybersecurity risks of Huawei and other Chinese firms, it has not yet offered viable alternatives to Indonesia.
According to the report, Australia alone cannot compete with China, but together with Quad, it can “develop a serious technology training program that is good for Indonesia’s digital development and ensures a range of technology options,” not only the ones offered by Chinese ICT companies.
