City-Berlin Celebrates 25 Years as Sister Cities
Reported by Mustaqim Amna | Translated by Nugroho Adibrata
The Jakarta Provincial Government and Jakarta Smart City, cooperated with Berlin and Startup Asia Berlinare to hold an event themed "The Good Idea Jam" at Great Hall, Jakarta City Hall, Thursday (8/1) in commemoration of the Sister City's 25th Anniversary between Jakarta and Berlin.
We together face the challenges of urban areas
It purposed to find innovative solutions to answer urban challenges themed Smart City, Urban Mobility and Urban Environment, strengthen the partnership between Germany and Indonesia, as well as accommodating the exchange of ideas about business and solutions for developing feasible smart cities.
It was attended by representatives of the Germany government, Germany and Indonesian startups, as well as ranks of the city government.
City Decorates Tunnel on Jalan Kendal to Commemorate 25 Years Jakarta-Berlin Sister City CooperationParticipants had the opportunity to gain access to important networks of government, entrepreneurs, and potential partners to work on real concepts that can be applied to face urban challenges.
On that occasion, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan gave a speech saying the Jakarta-Berlin equation and the importance of such meetings as a means of shopping for ideas to overcome Jakarta problems.
"We together face the challenges of urban areas. The challenge might not be the same in its form. But I think it's basically the same. We're a growing city that faces dynamic challenges. And we hope to get new solution, which is a breakthrough," he expressed.
One of Jakarta's challenges was the transformation of use from private vehicles to public transportation. Through JakLingko program, integration of public transportation modes is key in implementing policies that resolve vehicle problems.
"Other challenges are how to continue and expand its network that aims to minimize the use of private vehicle, as well as air pollution and traffic jam. That's why we need fresh ideas how to reach wider and advanced, especially in lifestyles to use public transportation and use emissions-free transportation," he explained.
He also stressed the importance of adapting a policy program rather than adopting something that proved successful in a place but unsuitable in Jakarta.
"Thereby you came to the right city. Some time ago, the Global Startup Ecosystems Report released by Startup Genome has listed Jakarta as a City of the World that is ready to challenge the dominance of the Global Startup Ecosystem that has existed before, such as Silicon Valley and Beijing. This is good news for us, which means we need to further promote a startup business ecosystem in Jakarta. We hope this meeting can contribute in the same goal," he uttered.
Jakarta Communication, Informatic and Statistic Agency Head, Atika Nur Rahmania added that the use of technology was needed to overcome the current problem. Through a single integrated Community Fast Response (CRM) system, the government could manage 15,000 complaints every month thus could be handled effectively.
"Collaboration between the government and its citizens has inspired us to impose City 4.0 concept whereby the government as a collaborator rather than just an administrator/service provider and citizens act as co-creators. Thus the government cooperates with them to resolve the problem and we hope it could create new ideas for a better city," he stated.
As for the information, in 1993, Jakarta and Berlin have focused on culture and sports. But since 2016, the focus has shifted on how to connect the startup ecosystems of Jakarta and Berlin.
Through "Experts for city partnerships around the world" program by an integrated expert from Berlin, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has been placed in Jakarta in 2019 in order to support its partnership. It is surely supported by the German development cooperation.
