Telkom’s Plan of Establishing A Data Center in Singapore Obtained Government’s Support

Telkom’s plan for international expansion as part of its data center business in Singapore draws various responses. Since Telkom is one of government’s companies, issues like regulation and data leak remain the big question, although the Ministry of Communication and Information and Minister of SOE gave their objection already.

It’s been viral that Telkom will do international expansion in Singapore through its subsidiary in the country, Telekomunikasi Indonesia International Pte. Ltd. Singapore (Telin Singapore) as the company opens a data center business in Jurong, singapore.

“In Singapore, we’ve established our third groundbreaking data center in Jurong, named Telin-3. It will complement the previous two Telin Singapore’s data centers in Changi and Tai Seng,” said Telkom’s President Corporate Communication Arif Prabowo, as reported by Indotelko.

The plan inevitably draws many comments. One of them came from House of Representatives’ Member of Commission III Masinton Pasaribu. As reported by CNN Indonesia, Pasaribu claimed that the location of the data center is vulnerable against data leak.

“Why is it located abroad, if we can place it in Indonesia? It opens the possibilities of government’s data leak,” he said.

It’s a normal reaction, considering that Telkom also operates among the government. Being the object of those negative comments, the Ministry of Communication and Information finally voiced their concern.

“The facility of data center in Singapore is designated to fulfill global market’s demand. Telkom doesn’t place the national service and electronic system at the center. This complies to PP PTE Article 17 about the obligation of electronic system’s providers for public service,” said the Directorate General of App and Telematics of the Ministry of Communication and Information’s Director of e-Business Azhar Hasyim a couple of times ago.

He further explained that the regulation does mention that the vendors of electronic transaction system are obliged to place their data center and disaster recovery center in Indonesia for the sake of law enforcement, protection, and state’s sovereignty towards its citizens. However, he also underlined that the vendors of data center and electronic system need to be set apart in terms of regulation.

This step of Telkom gets supported by the Minister of SOE Rini Soemarno. She believed that there’s no government’s data which is brought or placed in Singapore even though Telkom’s building a data center in the country.

“Department’s data is managed here in Indonesia, let alone the government’s. I need to underline that the Telin Singapore’s data center manages or serves the need of global-scale enterprise,” Soemarno said.