Indonesia’s security market is relatively young; people began to seriously look at security only recently. This sets the country apart from neighboring countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia and even the Philippines, and puts its security industry in a good position to grow. “The Indonesia security industry has been
Indonesia's security market is relatively young; people began to seriously look at security only recently. This sets the country apart from neighboring countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia and even the Philippines, and puts its security industry in a good position to grow.
“The Indonesia security industry has been growing at rate of 20 percent every year. We'll be growing at a rapid pace probably until 2023,” said Stefanus Ronald, Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Security Systems Industry (AISKINDO).
A major driver of security growth is the government's efforts to build infrastructure to provide better links throughout Indonesia, which is made up of over 13,000 islands. In the past infrastructure had been poor – it has been joked that shipping from Singapore to Indonesia costs less than from one Indonesian island to another. That's why the current administration led by President Joko Widodo is putting infrastructure development as a top priority.
Among the infrastructure constructions underway are the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, the Trans-Java toll road, Kalibaru Port, Trans-Sumatra toll road, Kuala Tanjung Port, the Puruk Cahu-Bangkuang coal railway and the Trans-Java (Pantura) railway.
Specifically, the government's National Medium‐Term Development Plan calls for a total of 4,796 trillion rupiah (approximately US$358 billion) worth of infrastructure investment, divided between the public and private sectors, according to the portal Indonesia-investments.com. Among the infrastructure projects were new highways. According to the portal, a total of 942 kilometers of roll roads were added between 2015 and 2018, including the 332 kilometers to be completed by the end of the year.
Locally, construction of the first phase of the Jakarta mass rapid transit rail has been completed and is scheduled to run next year. According to the Jakarta Post, the track will have six underground stations, seven elevated stations and the capacity for up to 173,000 passengers per day.
This, then, triggers the need for security systems which can be used to protect the infrastructure as well as people who use it or build their business around it.
“We have a lot of infrastructure, highways, and roads to the eastern side of the country. It will stimulate other companies to develop the areas there, and it will create more demand,” said Alfred Bisuk with Lamjaya Inovasi Komputindo. “There will be new housing, and more people will be coming here to do business. People will need installation for electricity, telephone, communication and security. This will happen in the next one to two years.”
“Our opportunity is getting there, because obviously with the infrastructure open, they also open more opportunities for security,” Ronald said. “I mean this infrastructure can be used for something good or something bad. People can smuggle things easier now. The government's intention is good, but without proper surveillance and proper security, it can lead to the other way around.”