Engaging in the digital economy: issues and agenda in the quest to adopt Indonesia’s e-commerce roadmap

The study explores structural and practical issues following the adoption of Indonesia’s e-commerce roadmap (2017–2019) and its implications for the future of the country’s digital economy. Two major categories of issues are examined in order to identify problems and challenges confronted by related stakeholders. The first category, i.e. the structural one, relates to the larger governance context of the country’s digital economy to which e-commerce activities are attached. The governance context includes the legal and regulatory context, the institutionalizing mechanism and the implementing phases, which involve socio- and politico-economic interplays among its key players. The second category represents practical dimensions, which involve questions on the mitigation of and adaptation to concepts, models and practices in the digital economy. Indonesia’s position on the moratorium on e-commerce and the local initiatives on digital economy are presented to illustrate mitigation efforts by related stakeholders in areas where disagreements and negotiations on certain structural and practical policy issues have arisen, i.e. on Indonesia’s position on the World Trade Organization (WTO) moratorium on e-commerce and local initiatives (such as the ones in Yogyakarta) to develop a digital economy.