On 14 January 2016, the Indonesian e-commerce roadmap was announced after a widely publicized meeting between Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution, Minister of Communications and IT Rudiantara, Minister of National Development Sofyan Djalil, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong, Chief of Creative Economy Agency Triawan Munaf, and Deputy Governor of Bank Indonesia Ronald Waas. The three main points agreed by the government were to formalize an e-commerce roadmap as a national program to be launched by the end of January 2016, to appoint a program management unit to coordinate the efforts of various ministries and government agencies, and the plan to formally launch the roadmap by end of January 2016. The aspiration through the roadmap is to push the value of e-commerce transactions in Indonesia to US$130 billion by 2020.

One month after the announcement, on 10 February 2016 the roadmap had not been completed according to plan. We learned however, that the roadmap would be in the form of a government regulation. It will cover seven strategical and critical aspects to the e-commerce business such as taxation, logistics, funding, consumer protection, communication infrastructure, education and human resources, and cyber security. The issue of foreign investment will be covered separately in a new negative investment list (Daftar Negatif Investasi / DNI) also to be issued by the government.

The formalization of an e-commerce roadmap which led to its announcement in January 2016 was part of a long process that started way back in December 2014, but even then it was announced as a mere general plan without actual, concrete plans. At the time this article is written, over three months after the deadline set by the government, the e-commerce industry is still waiting to hear more about their roadmap promised to boost the industry.