Appearing relaxed in a long-sleeve batik shirt with first-lady Iriana in a simple pink hijab and red traditional Indonesian garb, Jokowi visited the headquarters of US technology giants Google, Facebook, Twitter and Plug and Play in Silicon Valley and downtown San Francisco on Wednesday to spread the message that Indonesia is serious about expanding into the digital economy.

From playing zero-gravity table tennis in virtual reality with Facebook chief executive officer and founder Mark Zuckerberg to writing on the office walls of Facebook and Plug and Play, Jokowi appeared to be having fun on his visit as well as showing his strong interest in the technology, innovation and digital sector.

“Start it up together, prosper together,” Jokowi wrote on Plug and Play’s office wall, in a clear sign of support for start-up companies to take on a larger role in the economy.

“I hope Plug and Play can take part in Indonesia’s vision to be Southeast Asia’s biggest digital economy, one that will reach US$130 billion by 2020,” he said during a meeting with Plug and Play CEO and founder Saeed Amidi at its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Plug and Play connects start-ups with corporations and invests in 100 companies every year, including Dropbox, with $3.5 billion (Bt125 billion) in funds raised by its start-ups since 2006.

Along with the $130-billion target, Jokowi envisages the birth of 1,000 “technopreneurs” in Southeast Asia’s largest economy with more than 250 million people sprawled across the archipelago.

His administration has allowed foreign e-commerce players valued at more than 100 billion rupiah (Bt263 million) to open businesses fully in Indonesia and teamed up with financial authorities to support funding for information-technology companies and small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the heart of the president’s “digital economy” vision.

At Googleplex in Mountain View, California – where Jokowi had Indonesian food for lunch with more than a dozen Indonesian workers – the president was greeted by CEO Sundar Pichai, whose company agreed to train 100,000 Indonesian mobile developers before 2020 through universities, online and in working groups across the country.

Google has also recently lowered the minimum price for applications, games and products on Google Play, from 12,000 rupiah to 3,000 rupiah so developers can reach more users.

Jokowi’s fresh and vibrant outlook on Indonesia’s economy, which is still somewhat reliant on commodity exports, was reflected in his message inscribed at Facebook’s headquarters.

“Peaceful together in harmony,” Jokowi wrote with pink chalk on the chalkboard wall at one of the world’s largest companies, with much laughter and light moments with Zuckerberg – who toured Tanah Abang market in Jakarta with the president in late 2014 – as well as a dozen or so Indonesian workers.

At Twitter’s headquarters in downtown San Francisco, where Jokowi met CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, the president was quick to record a live video of his activities there through the Periscope app that directly uploads to his Twitter account @jokowi.

There he also live-tweeted: “We invite @twitter to spread the word of tolerance and world peace.”

Wahyu Dinata Setiawan, 34, and Karl Karnadi, 33, both Indonesian workers at Facebook, said they appreciated the government’s support of start-ups, adding that they were thinking of opening their own business in Indonesia in the future.

Jokowi’s visit to the tech giants’ headquarters was part of his official agenda after attending the two-day US-Asean Summit that ended on Tuesday.

The ministry recently began the investigation following a demand from many domestic companies who themselves make billets and are affected by the cheap imports.

Since 2012 imports have more than tripled to 1.5 million tones, hitting domestic producers, whose inventories soared by 70 per cent last year from a year earlier.

Those currently opposing the ad hoc tax hike had also opposed the decision to investigate, saying imports had been much higher in 2008 -10 without sparking a similar probe.

They blamed the troubles of the billet manufacturers on excess capacity – two to three times higher than demand, is their claim – rather than on cheap imports.

The proponents of the investigation and higher tax dismissed these claims.

Nguyen Van Sua, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), was quoted as saying by Tuoi Tre newspaper: “It is no surprise they are objecting because most of them are processing steel, not manufacturing, and are benefitting from cheap imported billets.

“We should think about long-term domestic production and stability of the industry.”

Nguyen Minh Thao, deputy head of the Central Economic Management Research Institute’s Business Environment and Competitive Ability Department, warned that in future import taxes would decline due to international integration, and many companies would stop production and switch to trading.

“With this, domestic production will disappear, jobs will also be gone, steel has to be imported and the economy will rely on imports.”

According to the VSA, last year Vietnam imported 1.9 million tonnes of vario kinds of billets for USVND14,235,995 million, with Chinese products accounting for 63 per cent, more than two-thirds up from 2014.

At an average of VND7,151,520 per tonne, Chinese billets were VND2 million (nearly VND2,234,850) cheaper than local products.

“If the [imports] continue, the local steel industry will face bankruptcy,” Nguyen Van Ton, deputy general director of major steel producer VinaSteel, said.

Billet producers would take down many supporting industries too with them, he warned.

Ho Nghia Dung, chairman of the VSA, said, “The use of protective measures is in line with international laws and are meant to protect the entire industry not individual companies.

“The VSA has sent a reply to six steel makers who oppose the import tax hike on billets.”

The six had earlier communicated their objections to the VSA.

Dung too said that if import taxes are not increased soon, local steel makers would go bust.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai, said: “Any investigation with respect to trade protection anywhere in the world will lead to conflicts between domestic producers and importers.

“In this case, domestic producers have proved their loss and the Ministry of Industry and Trade has opened an investigation.

“We pledge that the investigation processes and procedures will be transparent.”

Industry Minister Saleh Husin said the ministry was mulling Bintan island in the Riau archipelago to establish the SEZ, considering the existing MRO facilities already established there.

“There are requests from the companies to focus on one place to develop the MRO services, so it can be integrated,” he said on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow recently.

Saleh added that Bintan had a strategic position, as many airlines went to nearby Singapore for MRO.

“We know that Singapore has limited space and it can be expensive to have MRO services there. Why don’t we develop it in a nearby location like Bintan, so people can switch to having the services there?” he said.

The government is said to be in discussions with GMF AeroAsia, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia’s MRO service subsidiary, on its facilities in Bintan, as well as other companies. Currently, GMF is developing a hangar in Bintan, which is being built in a joint venture with Bintan Aviation Investments, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Gallant Venture, dating back to 2014.

Gallant Venture has the concession to build an airport in the area, which is slated to operate by 2017, with the company providing land for the hangar development for GMF. The hangar is slated to have the capacity to contain wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus 330.

Meanwhile, the country’s biggest low-cost carrier, Lion Air Group, has also established an MRO service at nearby Hang Nadim Airport in Batam, which is close to Bintan.

Saleh said companies establishing MRO facilities in Bintan would get incentives that were applicable to SEZs, as stipulated in the economic package. The incentives would include a tax holiday or tax allowance, adding to the scrapping of taxes on aircraft components for the industry.

The aircraft MRO business is estimated to be worth US$1 billion (Bt35.7 billion) per year, with Indonesian businesses currently taking up only 30 per cent. There are an estimated 60-70 aviation MRO companies in Indonesia, with GMF AeroAsia the only one certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the US Federal Aviation Administration.

GMF AeroAsia president director Richard Budihadianto said in an official statement that the expected total spending for MRO over the next five years would reach $32 million, with engine maintenance hitting $28 million worldwide, giving the opportunity for local MRO services to access international markets.

Commenting on the plan, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno said she had also pushed Garuda Indonesia to negotiate with aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus to hand over the servicing of their aircraft to Garuda, as it had purchased plenty of their products.

GMF signed a deal with Dutch airline KLM worth $3.5 million on aircraft components and engine maintenance on Wednesday. It was estimated to have signed deals worth more than $100 million during the Singapore Airshow.

Significant investments in air traffic management systems are needed to ensure the safety of the millions of people who fly every year .

This is a key area of focus for Singapore, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo.

By the end of the next decade, Singapore could handle 700,000 flights a year, twice as many as it is handling now, she told reporters on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow yesterday.

On top of about 350,000 flights that Changi handled last year, there were another 300,000 flights that cut across Singapore skies.

Said Teo: “It is not going to be enough just to build airport capacity and have lots of room for airlines to move in and out, because if you don’t have the air traffic management capabilities, you won’t be able to deal with the capacity.”

By the time T4 opens in the second half of next year and the first phase of T5 is ready by the end of the next decade, Changi would have more than doubled its current annual passenger-handling capacity of 66 million travellers.

Singapore has launched several initiatives to boost air traffic management capabilities and capacity.

For example, the time separation or intervals between planes, especially during the peak periods, has been reduced to allow more flights to land and take off.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) also works closely with the Changi Airport Group to minimise runway closure times for maintenance and other works.

In 2012, the CAAS set up a $200 million fund to conduct research into air traffic management.

So far, about $120 million has been earmarked for various projects, Teo said.

Apart from Singapore beefing up its capabilities, it is also vital for countries in the region to cooperate to ensure that flights can be managed efficiently and safely, she said, adding that air traffic controllers cannot work in silos.

“You are only as efficient as whoever it is around you that you take over flights from and you hand over flights to. The ability to do that in a smooth and efficient manner is also very important,” Teo said.

European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc told The Straits Times earlier this week that the European Union (EU) is happy to share its experience with Asean’s 10 member states.

Both blocs have started working to seal the world’s first bloc-to-bloc open skies deal.

This will allow Asean carriers and airlines based in the EU’s 28 member countries to fly freely between the two regions.

Industry experts said the need to beef up air traffic capabilities will become more urgent as Aseanmoves towards open skies within the region.

While much progress has been made in the push for liberalisation, work remains.

Indonesia, for example, has yet to ratify a deal, which was to have been sealed at the end of last year, to allow Asean airlines free access to all Indonesian points.

Teo said, however, that she is encouraged by the tone and stance that Indonesian President Joko Widodo has adopted.

“He has indicated that Indonesia very much welcomes foreign investments and he wants to strengthen this aspect of his administration…

“Air connectivity and the Asean open skies feed directly into what he hopes to achieve for Indonesia.”

She added: “When they are able to ratify Asean open skies, it will provide a major impetus for theAsean economic community to come together in a stronger way.”

In a keynote address at the Business Session of Delhi Dialogue VIII here today, external affairs secretary (East), Anil Wadhwa said that under an MoU signed in 2012, nine border haats in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram will be set up. India has now two Land Customs Stations (LCS) at Tamu-Moreh in Manipur and Rhi-Zowkhathar in Mizoram, and the LCS at Moreh is being upgraded into an Integrated Check Post, he said.

Wadhwa said efforts at promoting cross border trade at the micro level requires support at the macro level through physical connectivity.

“We have announced a line of credit of US$1 billion to promote projects that support physical and digital connectivity between India and Asean. Along with the construction of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multimodal Project, we are also at the final stages of a Motor Vehicles Agreement between India, Myanmar and Thailand which will address soft connectivity issues,” he said.

Recognising the importance of science and technology, India had enhanced the Asean-India Science and Technology Fund from $1 million to $5 million from this year, which will go towards setting up of an Asean-India Innovation Platform to facilitate commercialisation of low cost technologies and collaborative R&D projects.

Wadhwa said there was need to collaborate in development of infrastructure and sustainable energy by promoting private sector cooperation in the development and utilisation of renewable and alternative energy sources along with liberalisation of power trade among Asean members and India. “I hope the session will come up with the broad contours of an Asean-India ecosystem to facilitate the convergence of technology, integration across diverse fields, distributed architecture and people willing to back an idea,” he said, adding that India is currently undergoing economic and social transformation on a scale and a speed that is unmatched in history.

The Indian economy is the fastest growing major economy with a growth rate of 7.3 per cent in 2014-15, Wadhwa noted. “We have undertaken a number of steps to improve the business climate which have resulted in FDI inflows going up by 40 per cent,” he said. He added that Asean is forging ahead as a community by deepening its economic integration.

At the last Asean-India Summit in November 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called India andAsean “two bright spots of optimism” amidst ongoing global economic uncertainties.

In the past year, a significant achievement has been the completion of the Asean-India Free Trade Area with the implementation of the Asean-India Agreements on Trade in Services and Investment on July 1, 2015.

The military-run Telecommunications Group (Viettel) recently released its financial report, showing total revenue of nearly VND223 trillion (US$9.99 billion) in 2015, of which about $1.5 billion came from its business in foreign markets.

In the same year, Viettel expanded its business in Tanzania and Burundi, bringing its total operational market to 10 countries, including the United States and countries in Asia and Africa, supplying services to some 75 million customers.

Telecom firm FPT Corporation (FPT), one of the first Vietnamese enterprises to develop its business abroad in the technology sector, told VnExpress.net it had made several special achievements in new markets such as Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2015.

In Myanmar, FPT was the first 100 per cent foreign-owned firm to secure a licence to provide fixed telecom and Internet services in the country. Myanmar’s communications and technology ministry granted FPT a 15-year licence, which would also allow the firm to provide online games, e-news, websites and e-commerce services, FPT said in a statement.

In 2015, FPT earned nearly VND4.9 trillion ($219.4 million) in revenue and VND674 billion ($30.2 million) in pre-tax profit from its business in foreign markets, marking a year-on-year increase of 41 per cent and 17 per cent compared with 2014, respectively.

With a target of $1 billion in revenue from foreign markets by 2020, FPT aims to increase both the capacity and quality of its services. The company will apply all-in or fixed-price contracts instead of the current periodic contracts.

In addition, FPT considers mergers and acquisitions to be an important new motivating factor to power its future growth. It will develop business operations following the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model in several markets, such as Myanmar and Bangladesh. For example, an e-ticket system, which was successfully rolled out for Vietnam Railway, is expected to be applied in Myanmar.

In an interview with itcnews.vn on February 14, Chairman of the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association Truong Gia Binh said the domestic IT businesses had been aggressively expanding into foreign markets in terms of both scale and growth rate. Viettel, VNPT and FPT, as well as other businesses with advanced technology, such as DolSoft and MK Group, were leading the charge.

Binh said Japan was one market that had been attracting IT businesses from Vietnam in recent years. Many major companies and small and medium enterprises had opened branches in Japan, including FPT Software, TMA, Luvina, Vietsoftware International and Tinh Van Outsourcing.

Binh said when Vietnam signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, many IT opportunities would open in the fields of export and import, logistics, transport, customs and tax procedures and e-payment.

“An important thing to note is the co-operation among Vietnamese IT businesses. To develop the business, these enterprises must associate and co-operate with each other – a situation we have never had,” Binh said.

As Vietnam has been deeply and widely integrating into the world economy, many Vietnamese have joined the trend of spending billions of dollars abroad. Vietnamese dairy firm TH True Milk last year opened a $1 billion dairy farm in a Moscow suburb. The plant specialises in producing animal feed, breeding dairy cattle and producing milk.

Another major milk maker, Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), has earned billions of dong from its investments abroad and from exports. In 2015, the company earned more than VND40 trillion ($1.79 billion) and after-tax profit of nearly VND7.8 trillion ($349.3 million). Of the former, revenue from foreign markets was VND8 trillion ($358.2 million), 39 per cent higher than the previous year.

Vinamilk launched its strategy to invest abroad by co-operating with Miraka to build a milk processing plant in New Zealand. The plant became operational in August 2011 and reached full capacity for production in August 2012. Vinamilk’s total investment in Miraka has risen to more than $13 million, and its stake there has increased from 19.3 per cent to 22.8 per cent. In 2014, it also poured money into a business in Cambodia to supply milk for that market.

In 2013, Vinamilk invested $23 million in a joint venture in Cambodia with Angkor Dairy Products and spent $7 million on a 70 per cent stake in Driftwood Dairy Holding in California.

Taking the lead in overseas investment in mineral exploitation is Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, or PetroVietnam (PVN).

At a press conference, held in the middle of last year, Director of PVN’s Overseas Project Management Department Vu Van Nghiem said the company had invested in 17 overseas projects, mainly dealing with exploration and exploitation of oil and gas, at a total value of $2.6 billion. PVN had, at that point, exploited 5.4 million tonnes of oil and gas, earning a profit of $470 million.

Masan Group last year made a $1.1 billion landmark partnership deal with Thailand’s Singha Group to better serve the 250 million consumers in the ASEAN with a broader portfolio of branded food and beverage products. As part of the agreement, Singha agreed to invest $1.05 billion in Masan Consumer Holdings for a 25 per cent stake in the company and another $50 million in Masan Brewery for a 33.3 per cent stake.

A number of banks, such as Vietinbank, the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam and the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, have combined their efforts to expand their overseas branches, especially in the ASEAN.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency, Vietnamese businesses have invested nearly $20.5 billion in the fields of natural mineral exploitation, agriculture and telecommunications in foreign markets, including Laos, Cambodia, Africa and the United States.

Citing the results of the company’s National Salary Report, Jobstreet.com Philippines country manager Philip Gioca said the IT industry offered the best compensation across all position levels over the last three years, indicating the rising demand for IT-related services in the country.

For junior executives, the average monthly salary of an IT specialist stood at P38,149; P63,485 for supervisors; and P86,550 for managers and assistant managers.

Gioca disclosed in a briefing Wednesday that for junior executives (one to four years of experience), the second highest paying job was those related to law and legal services, followed by actuarial and statistics, customer services and training and development. Rounding off the top 10 highest paying jobs under this category include public relations and communications, banking/financial services, arts/creatives, finance-related, marketing and business development.

For supervisors, law and legal services jobs offered the second highest compensation, followed by quality control and assurance, finance-related, and customer service-related jobs.

For managers, corporate strategy offered the second highest compensation followed by actuarial science and statistics, quality control, and customer service-related.

On the average, salaries across the top jobs in demand in the country rose by 7 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year, on the back of a robust local economy. Such growth, according to Gioca, was the highest salary increase recorded over the past three years.

“This (salary increase) is reflective of what the economy is presenting us. The number of jobs grew because the economy (performed) much better that we can now afford to give more jobs,” Gioca further said.