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It’s Indonesia’s ‘Silicon Valley’, but has Algorithm Hill done the maths?
- The latest plan for an Indonesian answer to the Californian tech hub is a sprawling multibillion-dollar, 888 hectare park in West Java
- But critics say the Valley’s secret is in its people and location; education and infrastructure must be overhauled if its success is to be replicated
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Indonesia’s long-held ambitions for creating a tech hub in the image of Silicon Valley appear to be taking shape, with work about to start on a multibillion-dollar project that will cover 888 hectares in West Java and be known as Algorithm Hill.
There’s just one problem, say critics: building a sprawling park, however well-financed, will do little to replicate the success of America’s tech champion without fundamental improvements to the country’s infrastructure and education system.
Creating a Silicon Valley-style tech hub is central to President Joko Widodo’s vision of ushering in a fourth industrial revolution built on advanced technology and human resources in time for 2045, when the country will celebrate 100 years of independence.
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In 2019, Jokowi, as the president is widely known, said that he wanted the US$33 billion new capital in East Kalimantan to be modelled after Silicon Valley. In the same year he launched a Silicon Valley-esque start-up hub in the far-flung province of Papua. Similar hubs have been built in other cities, including Bandung and Yogyakarta.
The latest plan to imitate Silicon Valley is driven by Budiman Sudjatmiko, a politician with the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle who was once a political prisoner under the country’s former dictator Suharto.
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Budiman recently revealed his plans to build Algorithm Hill on a swathe of land in an abandoned resort in Sukabumi, West Java, some 112km away from Jakarta.
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