#farambles

For those of you who aren't in the news, the Indonesian government has issued a presidential regulation (peraturan presiden, or perpres for short) earlier this year where they will invest and nurture its local gaming industry. The law, called Presidential Regulation No. 19 2024 on Accelerating the Development of the National Gaming Industry - or Perpres No. 19/2024 for short - was issued on February 12th this year and went into effect that same day, is the Indonesian government's first major attempt to nurture and support its local gaming industry. Among which, the government states that it will fund game projects as minimum as US$40 million, hopes to make 100 prototypes annually, with the achieved goal of having Indonesian-made games taking up 70% of the domestic gaming market, and 10% of the global gaming market.

But you might be wondering, what would the law itself specifically states? Well, I have the copy of the actual law on my hand, so we can take a look at it together! Because idk why I'm bored and I got nothing else better to do.

So, the first thing to note here is that in order to achieve their video gaming industry nirvana, the Indonesian government has set up a team to assist the execution of the law itself. It will be headed by Coordinating Ministry for Maritime & Investment Affairs and conducted in conjunction between the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy and of course, our behated bastard child, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, or known popularly as Kominfo. Yup, the guys who banned Steam and PayPal due to MR5 and blocked all of your porn? That's them.

Funding for this program will be carried out from Indonesian state budget (APBN), local government budgets (APBD), and any other legal funding necessary to help the project. Whether or not game developers will receive the full amount of funding from the Indonesian government as it makes its way from the top to bottom is yet to be seen.

And that is it so far, where the formalities end. The attachment part that comes up next is the most interesting part, as that is where they put a long 14-page essay justifying the need for this regulation, and the steps they're undertaking to achieve the Indonesian government's ideal goal and vision for its local game industry. And it boils down to the largest big talking point mentioned below here:

This passage outlines the goals, in which that the Indonesian-games will get at least 70 whole percents of the local gaming market and 10 percent of the international gaming market. This is a number that is too optimistic in general, especially for the Indonesian government. There's also the aspect of "seeding the values of the Pancasila and national cultural values," which I'll address later on. But without knowing what kind of games the general market domestically and internationally wants, getting that number from scratch is outright unrealistic. Besides, how many games are they going to make to meet that 70%-10% goal?

Which leads us to the next point: they will do this by making 100 video game prototypes annually, promote 100 of them nationally, and promote 30 of them globally.

I feel like this is more of a quantity over quality kind of scenario. Expecting all 100 video games to be prototyped, and then rolled out to public release nationally and internationally under what I assume is a tight bureaucratic government scheme annually, in a country known where red taping is as common as everyday life is going to be very difficult. I wouldn't be surprised if the end goal turns out to be something like 20 games nationally, where 5 of them are promoted internationally. After all, it took A Space for the Unbound seven years from first concept in 2015 to public release, and then another to be nominated at last year's The Game Awards. If the Indonesian government expects to have ASFTU-level kind of game multiplied by 100 to be done within a year, then it needs to heavily readjust its expectations.

But at least there is one thing for sure, the Indonesian Education Ministry (Kemdikbud) will be working together with the Indonesian Games Association (AGI) to develop a national curriculum intended in bringing game dev course studies for vocational school and university students. It's at least nice to see that a standardized video game designing and development will reach a wider academic outreach domestically. Wouldn't be surprised if Indonesian game dev schools start playing Sakurai Masahiro's YouTube videos during class.

Now here comes to the financing and platforming stuff of the law: it states that the Indonesian government will construct an investment scheme through the Indonesia Game Fund through matching funds and venture capitals, in which they are expecting to raise around Rp600 billion or US$40 million annually to fund their game program.

As mentioned earlier, not only these games will be funded through annual state budgets and local government budgets, but third-party ways of funding are also allowed as long as it fits within their legal project. I would assume Indonesian state-owned enterprises would start doing some outreach to big capital investment banks and triple A game companies to fund the project. The extent of how realistic they will reach that 40-million-dollar goal is yet to be seen.

But here's another big, major smoking gun. The Indonesian government is also expecting to formulate a regulation that forces platforms to accept any third-party payments a game would prefer to use. This is a big deal, and it came at a time where Jakarta followed the EU's footsteps and sued Google for monopolistic practices on their payment system in 2022, with preliminary hearings beginning June this year. It was Indonesia's first major attempt to crack down on big tech.

Not only this will have ramifications for the Indonesian video gaming industry, but also the local tech industry at large. Such regulations may potentially cause even Apple to have the Indonesian government knocking on their doors for the same monopolistic behavior over their payment system. Although, I would imagine they would also have to play realpolitik on a case-by-case basis, considering Indonesia has also been wooing Apple for more investments, as well as trying to get them to build a manufacturing plant to make iPhones in the country.

Not to mention, the Indonesian government has been super lenient on local manufacturing schemes for Apple by letting iPhones for sale in the Indonesian market despite the phones themselves aren't manufactured locally, while companies like Samsung, BBK and Xiaomi manufactures are forced to manufacture their phones locally to meet such high standards. And starting an antitrust lawsuit with Apple is a good way to kill off any ambitions Jakarta has to make iPhones within its territory.

Another aspect that got me questioning hard however, is their intellectual property scheme. According to this law, around 25% of the IP rights to the games will be owned by the Indonesian government through a ministry or its state-owned enterprises, or a private company for marketing campaigns. Sure, IP rights and creative transfers like work-for-hire is a very common sight in the game industry, but I can't help but wonder why the Indonesian government would own 25% of your fancy fantasy JRPG game idea specifically, even if it's for marketing? It seems kinda suspicious.

Considering the AGI was involved in formulating the curriculum for game dev studies, and thus, being involved in formulating this regulation as a whole, part of me makes me wonder that 25% is the lowest amount the AGI and the Indonesian government agreed on. Even then, for marketing campaigns alone, giving off a quarter of the IP as a whole to the government seems a bit too much.

The Indonesian government is also planning to formulate a law (undang-undang) to require all foreign video game companies to open a local subsidiary within their borders. Otherwise, the Kominfo will be banning every access to their game services, and even prohibiting sales in Indonesia. I have covered about this issue before in my Nintendo in Southeast Asia history post, and the Indonesian gaming industry, including the AGI themselves have objected strongly against this notion. I assume the AGI couldn't get the Indonesian government to think twice about the ramifications of doing such move, as many local game developers are concerned about possible conflict of interest where big foreign gaming companies would absorb all Indonesian game dev human resources that could've been funneled into local game studios instead.

This also ties in with the future of the Indonesian Game Rating System (IGRS), with a directive to revise the Kominfo Ministerial Regulation No. 11/2016. Which they already did in the form of Kominfo Ministerial Regulation No.2/2024 and is the main reason why the IGRS website is currently down for the time being as they're reformulating how game rating is conducted.

I took a little glimpse over Kominfo's MR2/2024, and most of the articles and clauses remain pretty similar to the previous MR11/2016 regulation, except adding parts regarding game developers and publishers as "electronic system providers" and adding clauses that makes it sound it is mandatory for foreign game companies to open local subsidiaries in Indonesia and have their games properly rated by the IGRS or face repercussions.

And here comes the last interesting part of the law, tighter local domestic content manufacturing (TKDN) schemes on video games. This includes preloading local-made games bundled with gaming system hardwares that are also manufactured locally, under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry, or Kemenperin.

TKDN or local content manufacturing requirements has always been a controversial move conducted by Kemenperin. Despite its intentions to strengthen local tech production, Kemenperin is also known for giving free passes for companies like Apple to sell iPhones, despite not having a manufacturing facility within the country, pretty much undermining their protectionist scheme.

Opening a Foxconn manufacturing plant somewhere in Cikarang to manufacture Nintendo and Sony consoles is unlikely, so it's hard to see how this part of the plan will be executed. Tech companies in general sees Vietnam to be a more promising spot for manufacturing than Indonesia. The Vietnamese government ever since its Doi Moi economic revival program has been giving huge tax breaks, fast-tracked land permits to build factories, and many more to companies who are willing to invest in manufacturing within the country, something Indonesia is lacking heavily. Plus, Vietnam's advantage on sharing its proximity by land to China means the logistics and supply chains for the components needed for manufacturing and assembly would be considerably cheaper and cost-effective compared to shipping it across the South China Sea into Java, not to mention the huge tariffs Indonesian customs will charge on manufacturers.

This is the main reason why Apple chose Vietnam as it seeks to drop its reliance on Chinese manufacturing, while saying "we'll consider it" (which is another way of saying no) on manufacturing in Indonesia during Tim Cook's visit back in April. And since iPhones are made in Foxconn's factory, no Apple factories in Indonesia means no Foxconn factory that is also designed to make Nintendo Switches and PS5s made in Indonesia.

I don't think any companies, including hardware gaming companies, would want to manufacture their consoles in a country where the cost of doing business is way higher and takes longer and more expensive to import stuff for manufacturing.

I do hope that any local content manufacturing mandate they are planning doesn't end up being a huge burden to the customers and end up making video game consoles more expensive, or even outright not being sold due to said local content reasons.

MY THOUGHTS

And that's pretty much it. It is nice to see that the Indonesian government is putting their attention in its local video game industry. Investment and funding into local game studios and letting small indie game developers thrive is always a good thing. But I can't feel but help that the plans and policies taken really feels like Jakarta wants the gaming industry on a more protectionist, us vs. them approach.

The local content manufacturing requirements, the overtly optimistic 70 percent market share goals, the 25% IP transfers for the Indonesian government, the Pancasila and culutral values upholding requirements, everything about it seems like they want game developers to make games what the Indonesian government wants rather than what the consumers and game studios want to make.

The Pancasila and cultural value-upholding requirements in particular seems like a very open-ended excuse to heavily vet Indonesian-made games that doesn't meet the government's narrative, and I am quite concerned that they could have a huge editorial control over what games and concepts developers should make to please the big fat government overlords, such as banning progressive and sensitive topics and ideas in games, LGBTQ+ representation, and anything they deem to be "extremely violent" and "violating the common cultural norms." Which would be very something coming from bureaucrats where the only gaming thing they'd know is playing Zuma on work hours paid by its taxpayers. I hope they can understand and thoroughly examine on what Indonesian gamers, and to an extent, what the global audience want.

But not all of its policies are outright daydreaming or questionable. I welcome their attempts to crack down on big tech by making it mandatory for platforms to accept third-party payment systems, meaning Indonesian gamers could use local payment systems accepting rupiah via QR payment methods, which has been all the rage in the country. It is also nice to see that game dev courses are being planned for vocational school and university students, giving them curriculum-level of attention, it's a humble way to get people interested into game development 101.

Overall, the main points I would like to offer here are:

I wish the Indonesian government lets people make games what they want and what the audience wants, free from total editorial interference and suppression.

Fund game projects realistically and reduce any possible red taping as the funding moves from top to bottom. (Very doubtful, but it would suck to find out that a good game studio got unrightfully dragged into embezzlement/corruption scandals because of what happened on the top during the funding process.)

Make access to dev kits needed to make games easier, with customs and tax fees reduced or dropped entirely.

Setting targets more realistically and put quality over quantity.

Clarify more in-depth about the 25% intellectual property right transfer clause to government institutions.

Protectionist policies like local content manufacturing (TKDN) should not hamper gamers' choices on what gaming platforms and systems, as well as what kind of games they want due to it being inaccessible with higher tariffs imposed on a product. (It would suck if a game console became 50% more expensive due to more Kemenperin/Bea Cukai "economic safeguarding" shenanigans.)

The cheapest place to buy a Southeast Asian Switch 2 console "officially" is... Indonesia? I recently noticed a handful of Indonesian game stores are starting to offer official Southeast Asian Switch 2 consoles for significantly cheaper than MSRP prices in other Southeast Asian countries, especially ones with a new distributor representing Nintendo more locally. But how?

When the Switch 2 came out during its initial June 5th release date, Indonesian game stores (just like in other Southeast Asian countries) started parallel importing Hong Kong consoles, starting at IDR 10.5 million for the standalone console, or IDR 11.5 million for the Mario Kart World bundle.

Since then, prices have plummeted not only for Hong Kong consoles, but even official Southeast Asian consoles. I noticed many Indonesian game stores are offering the console at the IDR 8 million range, including for official Southeast Asian consoles. With prices starting at IDR 8.2 million (USD 501.23) for the standalone console, and IDR 8.845 million (USD 540.65), Indonesia is now "officially" the cheapest place in all five Southeast Asian countries that Nintendo supports via Maxsoft to get a Switch 2 as our neighbors get charged 560 USD for the former and 600 USD range for the latter.

One of the theories I have is that I suspect it has something to do with the new distributors in the other 4 countries keeping the price at MSRP. Companies like Convergent Systems in Singapore and Malaysia, Synnex in Thailand, and VST-ECS in the Philippines have a more direct line to Nintendo (specifically NCL in Kyoto), and they have the final authoritative say on the price that makes sense for them, the distributors and local retailers.

Since Nintendo doesn't have a local distributor in Indonesia with a hotline to NCL, Maxsoft - who's now looser and more relaxed since the introduction of new distributors - remains the "only" option to get consoles from.

Not to mention Indonesian game stores are dominated by local, independent brick-and-mortar game shops. GSShop remains the only retailer-style game store with multiple chains across the nation. This meant that unlike retailers working closely with distributors on a revenue sharing scheme, they have the ability to be flexible with the console's pricing as much as they want, even if it meant they had to take more losses from selling them. Freely without objection from a local distributor or Nintendo.

Another theory that I have is that Maxsoft gave local Indonesian game stores a great deal for all the Southeast Asian Switch 2 consoles they get in bulk. Which leaves the question on how much they paid for these consoles from Maxsoft per unit hanging in the air.

A few days ago, Nintendo's official store on the e-commerce site Shopee Singapore has quietly shadow dropped the pre-order pricing for the Switch 2 and the games. I immediately went ahead to check out the prices, and to my surprise, this new generation is not coming in cheap. SGD 730 (USD 568) for the standard model, SGD 780 (USD 600) for a bundle with a physical version of Mario Kart World, which consumers can purchase separately for SGD 120 (USD 94).

To be honest, it feels unsurprising that prices for these "premium" console gaming devices are beyond out of reach as it always has been in the history of console gaming in this part of the world, but also surprisingly disappointing considering Nintendo's recent huge grandiose commitments in Southeast Asia.

I am aware of Nintendo's recent "respect the value, respect the pricing" strategy that is currently being undertaken in this Furukawan-era by leaving behind its high-risk, high-reward blue-ocean strategy as it seeks to boost its profit margins doesn't mean much for a minor-performing market, especially when you're charging developed country pricing for a video game console and its video game consumables in a region where consoles have long dwarfed in comparison to PC and mobile gaming.

Even Sony is guilty of this effort. In 2022, PlayStation raised the prices of the PS5 in Southeast Asia. What once was IDR 8,800,000 or SGD 730 (USD 540–570) for an optical disc drive model became IDR 9,800,000 or SGD 800 (USD 600-622) in Indonesia and Singapore respectively — an additional million rupiah and seventy SGD from the launch price.

PlayStation Plus subscription services has gone up as well in April 2025, with an additional 40-50% increase across the board in the region, with Sony citing "global market conditions" (a subtle hint referencing US tariffs) as the justification for the raise. This indicates that console game companies like Sony is looking forward to offsetting the possible burden risks of the tariffs onto its more minor-performing markets.

Pricing in minor markets will always be difficult for a console. After all, this is a large multibillion dollar business built around a razor and blade business model, born out of privileged and developed Global North countries making more than USD 1000-2000 in monthly income. It will be difficult when faced with a market situation where most people earn roughly under USD 1000 monthly and game market and purchasing trends indicate that consoles are not the hot topic.

But the seemingly lack of commitment to even basic regional pricing, especially coming from the original Switch era where first-party Nintendo titles are priced around the USD 40 range, further shows that console gaming companies, including Nintendo (specifically its NCL main Kyoto headquarters, who's responsible for Southeast Asian operations) has barely done anything to make console gaming more accessible to the masses.

While I can understand that this strategy of shifting the burden of the weak Japanese yen at home to other markets, especially one with stronger currencies such as North America and Europe, might help them in the longer run financially, but this feels contradictive and counterproductive to Nintendo's expansion plans in Southeast Asia that Furukawa Shuntaro once pledged to his shareholders, and even fans in the region.

Perhaps Nintendo's world-class marketing team is aware of this and made the conscious decision of seemingly sidelining Southeast Asia during its market research, concluding that giving us suboptimal pricing was the best solution that they can do in order to maximize profits in older, major regions holding dollars and euros, leaving Southeast Asia with scraps as SEA Nintendo fans expect greater commitments in the region.

Referring back to the segments on Indonesia and Thailand from the book Video Games Around the World edited by Mark J. P. Wolff, console video games has always been a mode of entertainment reserved for the middle-upper class to own and enjoy. It feels unsurprising yet disappointing that these new commitments come with a higher price tag in this cost-of-living crisis era.

So, as you guys might have known, Nintendo has unveiled the Switch 2, as well as the brand-new games, the features, the accessories, and - the most disappointing but not surprised part of all - the pricing. But what does this mean for Southeast Asia as a whole? Let's break down the important things we've known so far.

LAUNCH AND PRICING

Nintendo has confirmed that the release in Southeast Asia (specifically Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines) will be delayed within the July to September 2025 time window, alongside, finally, a local Southeast Asian region Nintendo eShop and Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. This marks a milestone in Southeast Asian Nintendo history consistent with Nintendo's current efforts to expand its console and IPs south of Japan, from opening up local stores in Bangkok and Singapore, to hiring Japanese-Thai translators to work for Nintendo's localization efforts in Kyoto.

I very much welcome the efforts to bring Nintendo games more accessible to Southeast Asian audiences, including allowing gamers to use local currency and all the fancy digital wallet and QR payment methods that is taking off in the region, but it still remains to be seen on how Nintendo will push regional pricing for its games and the NSO service. Physical first-party Switch games go for 40-45 USD on average in Southeast Asia, around 20 USD cheaper than America, so I hope that they keep the price the same or a bit cheaper for their digital versions.

I also hope that this 20 USD cheaper than the US price trend also extends to first party Switch 2 games as well as gamers are upset towards the pricing for the console's launch title Mario Kart World going as high as 80 USD and many uncertainties towards the pricing for Switch 2 Edition enhanced patches of existing original Switch games.

Prices for Nintendo Switch games per April 2025 shown in Shopee Singapore (bottom) and Tokopedia (top). Per current SGD-USD and IDR-USD exchange rate, the average rate of these physical games are roughly around the 40-45 USD mark.

But I can't help thinking about the delayed official release for the console and prices that we still don't know about. I suspect, in a Southeast Asian fashion, people will flock buying imported multi-language Japanese or Hong Kong versions of the Switch 2 for the sake of getting it early at the cost of getting little to no warranty at all and put Nintendo's launch momentum in the region at a disadvantage.

And if official Nintendo distributors end up raising the prices of the consoles relative of how much the imported consoles will be, their local official SEA launch might not look even more tempting. Looking at current official MSRP prices for Japan (multi-language version) and Hong Kong are at 69,980 JPY and 3,450 HKD respectively (which is ~7 mio IDR/600 SGD/16,000 THB/2,000 MYR), they're gonna have to compete with how much they think local import game stores are gonna charge for.

But I hope that these new distributors learn that you shouldn't forcefully bundle consoles with two games and two Animal Crossing amiibos like what Maxsoft did with the original Switch back in March 2017. Nobody liked that.

WHERE'S INDONESIA? IS THIS THE INDONESIAN FLAG? OH WAIT, IT'S ACTUALLY RED TAPE

One thing you might notice disappearing out of the equation in Southeast Asian Nintendo role is Indonesia. As I've mentioned before in my previous Nintendo Southeast Asia history long post, Nintendo has yet to assign a brand-new distributor in charge of representing the Big N in Southeast Asia's largest gaming market. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines all had brand new distributors to carry over the heavy lifting that Maxsoft/Active Boeki once had since the 80s in the region as Switch sales are rising, but not Indonesia.

Excerpt from the Indonesian Presidential Regulation 19/2024, with clauses requiring foreign game companies to open divisions within the country (top) and requiring local content manufacturing requirements for video game products sold within the country (bottom).

I presume recent uncertain regulations and red tape are proving too much for Nintendo to make a move into the country. Indonesia recently passed the Presidential Regulation 19/2024 (Perpres No. 19/2024), among which are many clauses mandating video game companies to establish official divisions in Indonesia through a foreign direct investment scheme, and a mandatory TKDN (local content manufacturing) scheme for certification. All of which would cost Nintendo a lot of money and resources to allocate to a realistically minor-performing market that Nintendo couldn't see to commit.

And if Nintendo committed to this scheme half-heartedly, they would probably face a similar fate of sanctions Apple went through this year in Indonesia. In a huge policy shift from Jakarta, the Indonesian government banned the sale of iPhone 16 and 16 Pro series in the country back in October 2024 after Apple failed to meet its new 35-40% local content manufacturing requirements. Apple responded by unsuccessfully negotiating multiple time with the Indonesian government, before eventually agreeing on an Airtag factory in Batam and iPhone accessories factory in Bandung. Recent reports also suggests that Apple started doing feasibility studies to open an iPhone assembling plant in Indonesia, in an effort to appease Jakarta. The ban was over as the Indonesian Ministry of Communications (Kominfo) issued certification permits for all of the iPhone 16 series, including the new iPhone 16e.

Looking at Apple's missteps, it's understandable to see why Nintendo has been holding out of Southeast Asia's largest gaming market due to bureaucratic red tape hurdles, and it's also unfortunate for Indonesian Nintendo gamers that an official eShop and NSO can only be enjoyed by its neighboring countries. Feels so close, yet so far away.

Fortunately, Nintendo's original Southeast Asian distributor Maxsoft/Active Boeki is still in charge of distribution for Indonesia, so we'll still be getting the newfangled Nintendo Switch 2, just without the localized online features, unfortunately.

This isn't really something I frequently write often since I constantly nerd out to weird and niche technology, but ever since obtaining my Indonesian polycarbonate passport, I can't help but wonder about visa-free agreements and things that can make travel easier for people.

When it comes to travelling, the topic of visa-free travel comes to mind to Indonesian travelers concerning the strength of their passport. According to the Henley Passport Index per December 2024, the Indonesian passport ranks the 66th strongest in the world, the strongest it has been since 2006. This strength grants Indonesians visa-free access to 76 different countries and territories around the world, including ASEAN member states, Timor Leste, Hong Kong and Japan. Although, this middle-power passport does pose as an inconvenience as Indonesian passport holders still need to apply for a visa to access the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and many European countries that fall under the Schengen Area.

As international travel recovers in a post-COVID era, and as more and more countries enact electronic travel authority for passport holders of visa waived countries, including fellow ASEAN member Thailand, Indonesians are wondering what's next that could strengthen the position of its passport. Especially concerning South Korea and Europe.

The rise of South Korea's soft power through the Korean wave has attracted many Indonesian travelers to travel the country for themselves, and with Europe's longstanding popular destinations such as the Netherlands and Germany with Indonesian travelers have left people wondering when will they be granted access free of visa?

On May 2024, the Indonesian embassy in Seoul spoke to the press on the possibility of granting Indonesians visa-free access to the East Asian country but citing difficulties such as the issue of reciprocity. And I think this is the time the Indonesian government should renew its 2015 visa-free rule for foreign nationals to enter Indonesia free of visa, even visa-on-arrival schemes.

THE 2015 VISA-FREE RULE SCHEME

Back in March 2015, the Indonesian government, through a collaborative effort from the Tourism Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry, granted visa-free access to Indonesia initially for Japanese, Chinese, South Korean and Russian passport holders, before expanding to 30 countries including Canada, the US, the UK and many European countries.

However, there was one main problem. The reciprocal principle that was set forth in the Indonesian immigration law. What does that mean, you might ask? To put it simply, if Indonesia wants visa-free access to the United States for Indonesian passport holders, then Indonesia also must give the US the right for its citizens and passport holders visa-free access to Indonesia. You give me the same thing you want.

The Indonesian government then moved to revise the immigration law to abolish this clause of visa-free reciprocal arrangements. Since then, the visa-free system Indonesia grants to foreign nationals have increased to 174 countries as an incentive to boost the country's tourism industry.

This system was met positively by many countries, and it even kickstarted the Indonesian government's first attempts to woo the European Union in granting Indonesians visa-free access to the Schengen Area, referring to a group of European countries who voluntarily given up its internal border checks in 1985 as a milestone of European integration. It gained the attention and support of French, Dutch and Belgian governments.

Although, this system has ever since then been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has never been fully resumed. As of 2024, the Indonesian government has only granted visa-free access to Indonesia for citizens from fellow ASEAN member states, Timor Leste, Colombia, Suriname and Hong Kong.

Without the 2015 visa-free system, the Indonesian government has little to offer in the negotiating tables to European and South Korean officials in proposing visa-free access for Indonesians to their territories. And ever since then, negotiations have remained in limbo, especially as environmental issues such as the sustainability of Indonesian palm oil and nickel have gained greater optics between Jakarta and Brussels.

With Indonesia's rising power in the world, now is the perfect time for the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with the Law Ministry's Immigration General Directorate to reinstate the 2015 visa-free system for foreign nationals to renew negotiations back if it wants Indonesians visa free access to Europe and South Korea.

Reinstating the 2015 visa-free system could give Indonesian diplomats a sign of commitment to EU and South Korean officials that they are ready to commit themselves to the visa-free arrangement and negotiations that has since then been in a limbo.

From there, the Indonesian government could even convince to bring other nations into the negotiating tables to expand Indonesians' visa-free access list, including with next-door neighbor Australia. Australians make up the second-largest travelers inbound into Indonesia yearly, yet on the other hand many educated Indonesian and Australian elites, as well as bureaucrats called for an increase in people-to-people interaction between both countries as the current arrangement is still considered inadequate.

Resuming visa-free access for Australians under the 2015 system could also bring Canberra into the negotiating tables with Jakarta in granting Indonesians access to subclass 601 - the Australian ETA system for countries where their visa requirements are waived, reducing the need for an Australian visa that would cost Indonesians AU$190 (Rp 1.9 million) - something neighboring Malaysia and Singapore have enjoyed for years. Not to mention, such a move would also bring a new level of positive relationship between Indonesia and Australia, as both countries has signed a free trade agreement back in 2020, a new defense pact few months earlier, and as the Prabowo administration allowed the return of the remaining Bali Nine prisoners to Australia, gaining Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's gratitude.

Indonesian transit fans, especially those within the Jakarta metro area, were already aware about the partnership between MRT Jakarta and Mastercard Indonesia initiated in December last year, mostly on naming rights licensing for the Senayan station and supporting Mastercard debit and credit cards for ticketing purchases through their MyMRTJApp. That partnership eventually culminated in an upgrade where in May of this year, MRT Jakarta and Mastercard announced that they are finally exploring and developing contactless payment adoption, with trials planned to be conducted in late of this year at select stations.

MRT Jakarta's procurement site back in April opened up to entice tenders to help develop a contactless payment integration that is EMV-based (referring to Europay, Mastercard and Visa - the three payment network companies that worked on the standard). The procurement process ended in May with PT Nutech Integrasi, a child company of Telkom Indonesia, won the bid to develop the system for Rp5.5 billion.

This news was received kindly by many transit fans, as a move intended as a successor to replace the FeliCa-based Kartu Multi Trip after they were canned a year ago along with the limitation of existing Nippon Signal gates. Many speculations range from Japanese proprietary systems and its rigid repair system & possible licensing costs as a hindrance to the Jakarta government-owned transit consortium.

The reality is, Indonesia is very much behind in contactless payments, especially with debit cards despite more banks have begun issuing contactless debit card products. After BTPN's Jenius and Bank Jago - banking products which were both kickstarted by Jerry Ng - were the first to introduce debit contactless products in the country, three of the four Indonesian mainstream big banks have begun issuing contactless debit cards, namely Mandiri, BCA, and BNI. Despite this, interoperability between different bank issuers with different EDC acquirers, are still very limited. I can't remember the many times where a CIMB EDC reader works with my Jenius, Jago, and Mandiri card, but not with a Mandiri EDC credit card reader.

The main reason why your contactless debit cards get constantly declined is because Bank Indonesia (BI) and its National Payment Gateway (GPN) network. According to a BI mandate, all debit cards in Indonesia must be processed through the GPN network. Even if your debit card says Visa or Mastercard, it will still be processed using BI's own National Standard Indonesia Chip Card Specification (NSICCS) application on the EDC. As of right now, NSICCS does not officially support contactless payments... for now.

But what the heck is GPN? What is NSICCS? First off, the GPN is a domestic interbank network system developed by the Indonesian central bank, Bank Indonesia. Think of it like RuPay in India or NETS in Singapore, or even more easier Visa cards but only can be used domestically in Indonesia. The GPN network encompasses multiple payment methods, including GPN debit cards and QR payments through Quick Response Indonesian Standard (QRIS, pronounced keris as in the Javanese dagger sword).

It was released in 2017 intended to integrate payment networks across multiple bank and mandate the usage of chip debit cards, specifically its own domestic EMV-compliant smart debit card spec called the National Standard Indonesian Chip Card Specification (NSICCS). The GPN standard is maintained by the Indonesian Association of Payment Systems (ASPI).

Besides of GPN being released as a way to integrate and promote a more secure interbank payments through more secure platforms like QR codes and chip debit cards, it also serves a bit of a national interest in having an independent payment network that is free from the shackles of Visa and Mastercard. Similar to how the Indian government has been using patriotic and nationalist notions to promote RuPay at home. Though, I would argue any country isn't safe from the shackles of Visa and MC, especially tourism-dependent Indonesia seeking that sweet foreign currency reserve from tourists, but I digress.

If you've been on the transit slash payment network Twitter in Indonesia lately, you might notice these videos released by Tata Martadinata, the Head of Product and Technology at ASPI, where they are experimenting a tap-to-pay payment system using a phone, which seems to indicate that BI and ASPI are currently working on a GPN-based contactless payment method.

This is just one of the few videos he has posted in his account, many other videos show phones running a beta/pre-release version of the e-wallet application Dana, GoPay, and MyBCA banking apps doing mobile tap-to-pay payments. In one of the replies, he seemed to indicate that GPN contactless payments are expected to roll-out later in August next month.

This is a huge development for GPN, as for the longest time contactless EMV-based payments has been a number one request among Indonesian banking and transit users. And this is where my main speculation comes to light, is that MRT Jakarta's contactless payment integration is also a preparation to accept GPN debit and e-wallet contactless payments.

As has been stated before, BI specifically mandates the usage of debit cards to only work with its GPN NSICCS payment network. No OnUS or OffUS Visa/MC payments. This means there's a huge chance that contactless debit cards such as Jenius and Jago may not work at all with MRT Jakarta. I feel like MRT Jakarta knows that serving only contactless credit cards to pay for transit in a country where 18 million out of 270 million Indonesians have a credit card is not enough. Especially since not all of these 18 million credit cards in circulation are contactless supported.

Since the GPN payment network is EMV-compliant, having EMV contactless readers over at the MRTJ gates means that they can also start accepting GPN contactless payments over debit cards, e-wallets, and possibly even prepaid cards later down the line. Having a local vendor like Nutech, who is owned by Telkom Indonesia, to do the integration process makes sense as they need a direct and easy access to Bank Indonesia so they can roll out GPN contactless the moment when they go online. This automatically opens up the possibility for preexisting debit card holders to pay for MRT Jakarta, which according to BI in May 2024 has amounted to over 301 million cards in circulation, compared to 18 million credit cards currently in circulation.

CONCLUSION

To sum it up, MRT Jakarta's contactless payment adoption isn't all just about accepting Mastercard payments. I think the main money maker here would be Bank Indonesia themselves. If what Tata is saying is correct, GPN contactless is just about a month away to introduction, and when it's finally rolled out, it'll be what the majority of Indonesians use to pay for transit.

I welcome the implementation of EMV contactless payments in transit using all payment networks. Considering BI's push for GPN, I would expect other public transport projects in Indonesia - say it be Damri buses, commuter line trains, BRTs and LRTs, and angkots - to start adopting EMV contactless readers to accept GPN contactless payments in the future. Not debit Visa or Mastercard, unfortunately.

Another addition to the abandoned town saga, it's the librarian feral-turned-anthro deer Seeca! Get it? Because shika is the Japanese word for deer? And thus, Seeca is a shika, get it? No? Whatever.

Seeca started his life as a feral sika deer roaming around the town. Ever since the laboratory leak incident happened down the coast, resulting in a radioactive contamination, he woke up one day standing with only two of his hooves, and being susceptible to communication with human and other anthro-like species.

From his crave and interest in reading books and other forms of literacy as he fits in with the rest of society, he now manages the local small-town library in the abandoned town. Whether he's back at his wooden cabin located deep in the forest or managing the library, this sika deer seems very enthusiastic in reading books and indulging himself in a thrilling and educational literacy adventure whenever he can!