Lecture by Mr. Kevin Sanjoto

On 28 August, the 7th class of APDA Global Young Leaders Course planned and established by Hanna Yoon, founder of APDA Global Young Leaders course, was held with the aim of proposing policies for the APDA Youth Forum. Mr. Kevin Sanjoto, co-CEO of AI IT technology company “Alphabeta”, founder of XENI and “Zerowait”, participated as an instructor and gave a lecture on how Indonesia, a technology barren land, built an advanced technology startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia under the theme of “Indonesia Digital Transformation”.

Prior to the full-fledged class, Mr. Sanjoto created a natural learning atmosphere by asking students what comes to mind when they think of Indonesia. He also led the lecture by introducing topics and materials that will be based on public discussions in the future, such as Indonesia’s economy and resources.

Indonesia, familiar with students with nasi goreng and mangosteen, Mr. Sanjoto said, “It has led to tremendous changes” from 2010 to 2021. In particular, he pointed out the background behind the rapid economic growth as the establishment of an Internet network. Also, Mr. Sanjoto picked “startup” as the reason Indonesia has grown to have the largest GDP among any other Southeast Asian countries. Indonesia, which had less than 1% of Internet access, has actively encouraged the emergence of startup companies since 2010 and sought to replace them from analog to digital generations based on the Internet. In particular, a large number of Internet-based unicorn companies such as Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest e-commerce system, and Indonesia’s leading mobility platform Gojek have emerged, attracting large-scale investments from venture capital (VC) around the world.

The students formed groups to present and discuss the reasons why technology-based startups were able to develop in Indonesia and the types of startups that could develop in South Korea based on Mr. Mr. Sanjoto’s lectures and pre-prepared materials. Each group selected detailed topics such as Fin-tech and Ed-tech based on the economic and national characteristics of South Korea and Indonesia. Students were able to reversely investigate how existing unicorn companies solved problems in daily lives and established corporate systems, and recognize the need for a multilateral approach to social issues or problems. Mr. Sanjoto helped students solve problems in various ways through feedback, question-and-answer, and discussions on their presentations.

The course is held every Saturday in real-time online classes, all in English. Students who participated in the class take lectures consisting of 10 experts in each field, including women, children, health, economy, and smart agriculture, and discuss international issues. All curriculums and youth forums are overseen by Dr. Hanna Yoon, founder of APDA’s Global Young Leaders Course.

* This article is written based on the content of the class after APDA interns attended APDA’s Global Young Leaders Course.
** Copyright of this article is in the APDA and it is prohibited from unauthorized copying without permission

Keywords: APDA, SDGs, Indonesia, Startups, Digital transformation, Unicorn companies

Written and edited by
Intern, Youngjun Park Intern, Junyoung Park Intern, Daseul Shin Intern, Yeaun Lee Intern, Hayeon Choi

Planning/General Manager
Hanna Yoon (Ph.D. in Media and Governance) Director of KGM Lab APDA Strategy and Communications Consultant/ Founder and General manager of APDA Global Global Young Leaders Course Adjunct Professor at Soongsil University

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