Global Citizenship Policy for 12 Million Digital Talents

RRI.CO.ID, Davos – Facing the needs for 12 million digital talents, the Indonesian government and industry leaders are moving beyond traditional schooling to a "Global Talent" model. The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, alongside tech giants like Telkom and Grab, is rolling out a multi-pronged offensive involving diaspora "Global Citizenship.”

The discussion panel at World Economic Forum (WEF) 2026 in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, talked about the digital transformation for Indonesia’s future. Due to this change, Director General for the Digital Ecosystem, Edwin Abdullah, warned that without a rapid surge in domestic competency, the nation's commercial digital growth will inevitably stall.

The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs aims to catch up Indonesia’s digital landscape to global standard and push the nation’s economy through digital. To achieve this, Director General Abdullah revealed that Indonesia needs approximately 12 million digital talents to sustain the nation’s technological infrastructure and MSME sectors.

Domestically, the Ministry built the Garuda Spark Innovation Hub located in several cities in Indonesia. It is a collaboration center for young talents, startups, academics, industry, and government to create digital innovations.

There are several current focuses in these hubs, which are AI and the creative industries, sustainable business and clean energy, also agritech and food tech. Director General Abdullah also said that the hubs will still expand in the future.

A major breakthrough in talent recruitment is the government's recent launch of the Global Citizenship of Indonesia (GCI) policy. Country Managing Director of Grab Indonesia Neneng Goenadi hailed the move as a game-changer for bringing high-level expertise back to the country.

"There are so many diaspora outside Indonesia who are very good, now can come back to Indonesia to work in Indonesia while you still have your citizenship outside Indonesia. So thanks to the government,” she said.

CEO of Telkom Indonesia, Dian Siswarini, highlighted a friction point within Indonesia’s digital ecosystem. "Universities cannot keep up with all these developments. So for them to change curriculum, it's not that easy, yeah? So, in many cases, the students that already graduated, they're not ready for the industry," she said.