Tapping into the great economic potential of Indonesian creators, JAGAT (PT Avatara Jagat Nusantara), a social metaverse platform from Indonesia, has just made an announcement that it is launching a virtual world that focuses on user creativity in creating spatial and immersive shared experiences, targeting creative and productive Indonesian creators. This user-generated content virtual world aims at providing immersive experience of social interaction. According to reports, JAGAT will be introduced at the upcoming 2022 G20 Bali Summit, which is scheduled to take place in Bali, Indonesia in November.
During the interview with Republica, Indonesia’s largest and most prestigious news medium, Wishnutama Kusubandio, the 2022 Indonesian G20 Presidential Assistance and Partnership Coordinator, said that Indonesia chose the G20 Summit to be the stage on which to introduce JAGAT for a reason. Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, has made the decision that the most important development strategy for Indonesia in the long run should be one based on technologies and digital innovations. Now with all the eyes of the world at the culmination of the grand event of the G20 Summit, Wishnutama hopes that through the introduction of JAGAT, more young Indonesians will be able to participate in the matters of the 2022 G20 Summit and play important roles in Indonesia’s digital strategy towards a technological future.
Earlier this year in May, President Joko paid a visit to the US where he attended a series of ASEAN-US Special Summit meetings. During these meetings, Joko highlighted Indonesia’s great potential in terms of industrial raw materials, green energy and digital economy to the US business circles. According to Joko, the value of Southeast Asia’s digital economy will reach 330 billion USD by 2025, and with Indonesia’s various policies to support and promote domestic Web3.0 development, the digital economy of Indonesia is expected to achieve a 20% year-on- year growth rate, reaching 146 billion USD in 2025.
Certainly, as the most advanced technological trend in the current world, Web3.0 and metaverse represent the next era of the Internet, with the potential to achieve things beyond imagination. For Indonesia, a country who strives to catch up with its developed western counterparts, Web3.0 and the metaverse are absolute necessities. Wishnutama said during the interview that currently Indonesia is making a transition towards a digital society. To be more competitive on the international stage, creating a local metaverse is pivotal. A metaverse built by young people will undoubtedly speed up the transition process.
In addition, JAGAT has been working closely with Advance Intelligence Group, one of the largest independent artificial intelligence and technology startups in Asia, and Utown, a metaverse platform from Singapore with rich experience in the social network industry, hoping that a combination of technological giants will bring a metaverse and Web3.0 experience to the general public in Indonesia that is accessible both technologically and financially. This serves as a strong indication of how determined the Indonesian government is to pursue a metaverse future.
In fact, Indonesia is not the only country to include metaverse in its country’s development strategy. Last December, the US congress invited some companies in the Web3.0 industry to discuss the development and regulation of the industry, and made it clear that they hope the upcoming Web3.0 technological revolution happens on the US soil. Likewise, Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida made an announcement before the House of Representatives that “the dawn of the Web3 and metaverse era may lead economic growth and web3.0-related projects will be part of the nation’s growth strategy”, said the Japanese government will undergo a “structural reform to create an environment” where all parts of the metaverse will be invested and promoted to achieve a society in which new services can be easily created. India is also seeking to lead market development, taking advantage of the substantial number of Internet talents in the country and a massive market scale. Jayant Sinha, member of the Indian Parliament and formerly the Minister of State for Finance, said that Web3.0 and metaverse are essential to India’s development.
With more countries showing a positive attitude towards the metaverse industry, technological innovations in the web3.0 field will be far more than technological progress per se; they will bring about a disruptive novel social structure and mode of operation when deeply integrated with national sovereignty, which has the potential to redefine the current societal norms and even international order.
