BANDUNG, Telkom University – Telkom University again collaborated with PT Telkom Indonesia to hold Innovillage 2021. Innovillage is a sociopreneurship competition in the field of digital technology to inspire all college students throughout Indonesia in their respective regions or hometowns because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The students are directly involved in helping the difficulties of rural communities through applicable digital innovations that have relevance to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to create social benefits and measurable economic improvements.
Innovillage has been running for two years and this event is in line with the program launched by the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo for digital transformation planning. Especially for digital village transformation readiness in the fields of communication, information, education, infrastructure, and the provision of internet services. This event is also a tangible manifestation of the implementation of Merdeka Learning – Merdeka Campus in producing future digital talents towards Advanced Indonesia.
AT Hanuranto as the Chair of the Committee explained that the implementation of Innovillage 2020 had gone very well and was appreciated by various parties and provided great benefits for the wider community and students. Departing from this, PT Telkom Indonesia through Telkom University is committed to continuing to implement and improve the quality and coverage of Innovillage 2021.
“If Innovillage 2020 was only attended by four universities with 301 proposals and finally selected into 100 sociopreneur proposals financed by PT Telkom Indonesia in 22 provinces in Indonesia, at Innovillage 2021 the coverage will be increased nationally and it is hoped that at least 50 participants will participate. National universities with more than 1000 incoming proposals and the 120 best proposals will be selected which will be funded as social projects in 120 villages covering 34 provinces throughout Indonesia,” he explained.
AT Hanuranto also added that this year the matching funds will be increased to more than 1.8 billion and more than 400 million Rupiah for prizes or awards for the best social projects.
Prof. Adiwijaya as Rector of Telkom University and Chair of the BUMN Higher Education Association (APERTI) said that the Innovillage 2021 activity can answer challenges and exams during the COVID-19 pandemic so that students and lecturers continue to study, work, and provide the maximum benefit and contribution to rural communities in particular.
“Of course, as well-educated people from universities, we will continue to develop the trust as best we can so that it can bring benefits to this nation. At Innovillage 2021, a similar program was launched with the previous year which is certainly wider because the collaboration is not only with universities under the Telkom Group but also with wider collaboration with the Indonesian Rector’s Forum, Indonesia Career Center Network, and BUMN APERTI so that it can expand its benefits.”
Prof. Adiwijaya added that through this activity universities have the opportunity to contribute to advancing the village not only in terms of innovation, but also have an impact on Indonesia’s economic growth.
Innovillage 2021 was inaugurated on Tuesday (31/08) online through the ZOOM Meeting and broadcast live through Telkom University’s YouTube channel. This activity was opened by the Director of Human Capital Management of PT Telkom Indonesia, Afriwandi.
In his remarks, Afriwandi explained that Innovillage is one of PT Telkom Indonesia’s social programs in developing digital competence in the community through universities. This collaboration program between PT Telkom Indonesia and educational institutions aims to facilitate students to have social sensitivity while remaining productive during the Pandemic by producing digital solutions in overcoming social problems in society.
“With the tagline ‘Empowering Young Sociopreneur for Sustainable Digital Village’, it is hoped that this program can produce digital innovation works and produce young digital talents that are beneficial to the Indonesian people. Hopefully, we can get through this pandemic productively so that we can continue to provide benefits to the people and nation of Indonesia.”