Indonesia is building a digital city from scratch

Photo Credit: Pixabay.

Every city outside of Silicon Valley, it seems, is desperate to create its own.

A cluster of tech companies in Portland? Silicon Forest! A handful of startups in an industrial building in Berlin? Silicon Allee! (Allee is German for alley). Startups sharing office buildings in Jakarta’s downtown Slipi district? It’s Slipicon Valley!

Reinventing a city from scratch with digital tools is the stuff of dreams for technology enthusiasts.

Obviously the real Silicon Valley cannot be replicated. It grew organically and over decades. The way it turned into an innovation miracle is directly linked to the rise of the semiconductor industry. That’s not going to happen again.

Knowing this hasn’t deterred anyone from trying. Malaysia’s Cyberjaya is an entire city built on the premise of becoming the Silicon Valley of Malaysia. Government-backed, this town has tech companies, a science park, schools, and residential areas.

And because Slipicon Valley isn’t enough, Indonesia is going for it again. The new “Silicon Valley of Indonesia” is supposed to arise in Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD), a satellite development in Jakarta’s neighbor district Tangerang. It’s roughly a 35-kilometer drive from the Jakarta city center. From San Francisco to Palo Alto it’s about 50.

A new tech hub

BSD City development masterplan.

Unlike Malaysia’s Cyberjaya, the plan to turn BSD into a tech innovation hub wasn’t hatched by the government.

It’s the end game in the property development scheme of Sinar Mas Land – a subsidiary of the Indonesian Sinar Mas conglomerate.

Decades ago, Sinar Mas Land started transforming thousands of hectares of mostly barren landscape. Today BSD, the neo-city, offers it all: housing, food, education, entertainment, a green environment, and the occasional shuttle bus into the chaotic bustle of Jakarta proper. But BSD also needs workplaces and a forward-thinking industry. This is where the tech sector comes in.

A smart, connected city infrastructure needs a smart community who cares about it and maintains it.

“Sinar Mas Land […] increasingly focuses on developing BSD City as a pioneer smart city based on integrated digital technology,” a recent statement on its website reads. “[The plans] go beyond just building public utilities and infrastructure, or providing broadband internet access to all BSD City households. Sinar Mas Land is building a network that will help with city planning and city life in every aspect.”

It starts with a co-working space

Like Google