Nongsa Digital Park KEK Begins to be Glanced by Singapore Startups – In 2017, President Joko Widodo outlined his vision for Batam to become a “digital bridge” connecting Singapore to the digital economy of Indonesian cities. With this vision, the Nongsa Digital Park (NDP) in Batam was inaugurated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, Vivian Balakrishnan in March 2018.
Sinar Mas Land and Citramas Group are developing Nongsa Digital Park (NDP) in Batam since 2021. NDP continues to develop as a work space for dozens of companies based in Singapore and has channeled hundreds of Indonesian digital Human Resources (HR) to various international technology companies. This cannot be separated from the collaboration with Glints, a job search site from Singapore which also has a branch office in NDP.
Glints regularly brings prospective clients to NDP so they can see first-hand the workspace, office environment, and workforce skills of digital school graduates from the NDP ecosystem. This time, Glints is supported by partners in NDP inviting startups and industry players from Singapore. This visit was carried out at the NDP on March 15 2023 and was accompanied by Margiman Ong, Senior VP Commercial at Sinar Mas Land and Marco Bardelli, Executive Director of Citramas Group.
“The NDP ecosystem is filled with well-known companies operating in the wider Digital Economy sector, EdTech activities, and many more. NDP offers opportunities for Indonesian talent to enhance their own skills through a series of superior vocational education initiatives and find employment opportunities in our ecosystem.”
“NDP is also home to Infinite Studios which operates the largest digital animation studio and soundstage studio in the region,” said Citramas Group Executive Director Marco Bardelli.
“NDP is an expansion project from the Digital Hub developed by Sinar Mas Land and Citra Mas Group in the Nongsa area, Batam, Riau Islands. We develop NDPs to significantly advance the national and regional digital economy. NDP is equipped with complete digital facilities, ranging from digital education centers, co-working spaces, offices, animation and film industry areas to data centers.”
“More than that, NDP is strengthened by the existence of a digital talent pool which greatly facilitates companies, especially from ASEAN, to expand here,” said CEO of Digital Tech Ecosystem & Development – Sinar Mas Land, Irawan Harahap.
“NDP is one of Singapore’s gateways to explore the availability of global workforce. This area provides a lot of manpower. With a short distance of only one hour from Singapore, Singaporean companies can find international talent, who are capable of producing digital products that can compete overseas.”
“NDP can produce quality human resources with digital education and training centers that consistently help improve quality and expertise,” added Commercial Director of Glints, Puay Lim.
NDP is a 166.45 hectare Special Economic Zone in Batam which has the main infrastructure to support various digital economic activities held there, including data center infrastructure. This area has a strategic location, only 35 minutes from Singapore by ferry and 15 minutes from Hang Nadim International Airport, Batam.
This development was inaugurated by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on June 12 2021 to work on investment opportunities in the digital industry. NDP SEZ has a total investment target of IDR 39.9 trillion with a target of employment of 16,500 people in 2040.
NDP is also equipped with various digital vocational activities such as Infinite Learning-Apple Developer Academy and Purwadhika Digital Technology School. Attracting Indonesian digital talent allows NDP to create jobs and support business and technology activities for international companies, especially those based in Singapore, which is known as a digital economy funding corridor in Southeast Asia.
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