The Minister of Trade Hopes the Government Will Not Burden Digital Industry Players with Heavy Regulations

Indonesian Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said the need for a different approach for digital industry players such as E-commerce. For that Thomas hopes that there is a different approach to E-commerce in the application of regulations.

"We have to be careful not to go straight into heavy regulations. Big companies, even with long-winded regulations and permits, have economies of scale, capital, and staff to take care of them. SMEs are difficult for that. If we want to adapting the digital economy to young people, we must not be hit with heavy regulations," say Thomas some time ago.

Thomas continued that at this time the government should use an approach lighttouch for players in the digital industry. With approach lighttouch itself means that the government is expected not to bind digital industry players with regulations and conditions that are too burdensome. But also not necessarily free of rules.

"If you really preserve the digital industry, don't deal with heavy regulations. Light touch. Because there are many young people in this industry, they are startup SMEs," said Thomas.

Furthermore, according to Thomas, the government should make country as safe harbour for digital industry players. What is meant is that the country can be a comfortable place for digital business people. One of them is by providing convenience for new innovations.

"That's what I said after last week's coordination meeting. So I suggest that we start socializing to law enforcement or regulators so that they are full of understanding about experimentation and innovation," he said.

The government as we know it is currently preparing a regulation to E-commerce via roadmap E-commerce. The plan is that this roadmap will start launched at the end of January 2016.