Yogyakarta province in Indonesia sets to transform 385 hectares of land in Piyungan, Bantul regency, and Sentolo, Kulon Progo regency, into a technology center similar to Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.
"The two locations are prepared to become the Silicon Valley of Indonesia," said the assistant to the Yogyakarta regional secretary for development affairs, Budi Wibowo, as reported by Antara. The area includes tourism place that already occupies 10,9 hectares.
The area is also aimed to be converted into an industrial estate that would become the center of fashion, culinary arts, handicrafts, animation and games as well as other creative businesses.
"There will be no large manufacturing factories," Wibowo added.
The provincial and local administration would cooperate with any investors seeking to do business in the areas, the development of which would be kicked off by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. They had also coordinated with the Bantul and Kulon Progo administrations for business license issuance plans to ensure a fast and smooth investment process.
He said that the digital valley would be for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that focus on creative businesses.
Since the development in the area is the second largest in Indonesia, it's predicted that the area would employ tens of thousands of new workers. “We have 524,395 SMEs that dominate economic growth in Yogyakarta,” he added. And that number contributed to more than 98 percent of the region's economic growth.
The place that would become the center of digital technology in the region, is predicted to have a market surpassing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Previously, 4 Indonesian startups (Karapan, CekMata, Squline and Marlin Booking) were sent to U.S. Silicon Valley by The NextDev 2017 Telkomsel, to learn more about digital development and transformation. They have also attended Startup Grind Global Conference 2018 in Fox Theatre, Redwood City.