Jakarta the Big Durian – a land of opportunity for young Singapore expats

Pang Xue Kai moved to Jakarta in 2018, when he was 28.

The Singaporean had completed a mechanical engineering degree at the National University of Singapore and just finished serving his scholarship bond with the United States multinational oil and gas company that sponsored his degree.

He could have taken the fast track to management and enjoyed a cushy, stable career in an MNC. But Mr Pang made a bold bet instead to relocate to Jakarta – a city he had never visited before –where he founded Tokocrypto, Indonesia’s largest crypto exchange.

“My decision to move to Jakarta was scary, but it taught me the importance of establishing networks, taking risks, and finding the right partners to work with,” Mr Pang told me.

One partner he found was Estelle van der Linden. They met in Jakarta, and eventually got married in 2022. They are now planning to return to Singapore before the birth of their first child later in 2023.

Mr Pang’s story is an increasingly common one here. As Singapore continues to establish itself as a global business hub, enterprising Singaporeans searching for their next wind will look beyond the city state for career opportunities. Those looking hard enough should pin their sails to the booming Indonesian digital economy.

The biggest invisible thing on earth

It is a pity more do not. Indonesian businessman John Riady once joked that his country is the “biggest invisible thing on earth”. Despite being a country of superlatives, Indonesia remains relatively unknown on the world stage or, at least, very much underestimated.

Even its geographical size, a proxy for the huge economic opportunity, is commonly understated, even among the regional business community. On a recent work trip to Tokyo, I asked my client show big they thought Indonesia was. The most common reply I received was: “Is it the size of Malaysia?”

No, it isn’t.

“Then is it as big as Thailand?”

A little closer, but still pretty far off the mark.

“It can’t possibly be as big as Japan!”

I often pull out an image on my smartphone showing a map of Indonesia superimposed on Japan and watch in amusement as jaws drop. If Indonesia’s easternmost tip was at Tokyo, the western most end of the archipelago would be somewhere over Karaganda in Kazakhstan, which sits on the same longitude as Mumbai.

The Japanese are not alone in this misjudgment of Indonesia. Many Singaporeans I speak to have little knowledge of our immediate neighbor beyond their occasional holidays to Bali.

In his book, Musings, former Singapore foreign minister George Yeo laments the “great deficiency”, that Singapore does not teach its students enough about the region that we live in.

“If I were to ask a young Singaporean today where Palembang is, he would struggle to give me the answer.” Singaporeans, Mr Yeo continues, also “have a tendency to look down on our region, thinking we are an advanced country”.

However, I strongly believe that Indonesia’s days in obscurity are soon coming to an end and that, over the next decade, its global clout will increase significantly, turbocharged by the sheer size of the country’s bustling economy.

Size does matter

Growing up in Singapore, the idea that our small size was a distinct disadvantage in a world of larger, more powerful actors was deeply ingrained in most of us. We are a tiny rock at the tip of the Malay peninsula. At 70km across at our widest point, home to only 5.6 million people, and bereft of any natural resources save for our geographical location and deep-water port, we are deeply vulnerable.

Across the Singapore Strait, the converse is true. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority state, its fourth-most populous and third-largest democracy. About 280 million Indonesians live across the sprawling archipelago of 17,000 islands spanning a distance of about 5,100km from east to west and 1,800km from north to south.

Indonesia’s economy is the largest in South-east Asia and is expected to become the seventh largest in the world by 2030, overtaking Germany and the United Kingdom. It is the only South-east Asian member nation in the Group of 20, and the only trillion-dollar economy in the region, three times the size of Singapore’s.

Indonesia is also blessed with an abundance of natural resources, and is the largest producer of many commodities grown on or dug out of its generous earth, from palm oil, an ingredient found in most fast-moving consumer goods, to nickel, an essential component in the production of electric-vehicle batteries. The global commodities boom has sent Indonesian exports to a record high, resulting in the strongest economic growth for the country in almost a decade.

Therein lies its attraction for young, hungry professionals in business, finance and law. Working in Indonesia provides a golden opportunity to participate in one of the largest, fastest-growing markets in the world today. Singaporeans would be foolish not to take advantage of our neighbor's growth and growing importance on the world stage.

The rise and rise of the Indonesian digital economy

But if your mental image of the Indonesian economy is one predicated on extractive industries, driven by gruff men in rolled-up shirt sleeves working on sweltering plantations or in dusty coalmines in East Kalimantan, you could not be more mistaken.

Indonesia is home to the world’s second-largest TikTok population, and third-largest Twitter and Facebook populations. More than half of the country’s population are below 30, and most Indonesians are digital-savvy, having been born into the information age.

A 2022 study by Google, Temasek and Bain shows that Indonesia’s digital economy – valued only at US$8 billion in 2015 by the World Bank – has grown by an order of magnitude and produced nine unicorns in the process – including e-commerce major Tokopedia, ride-hailing firm Gojek and travel platform Traveloka.

The impressive growth of Indonesia’s digital economy is expected to continue over the next decade, as its middle class expands and digital platforms facilitate the distribution of goods, and education, healthcare, financial, media and myriad other services to meet burgeoning aspirations.

Not only will this create opportunities for Singapore tech entrepreneurs looking to tap into a large and growing market, it will also generate demand for tech talent to support the rapid growth of start-ups and technology companies.

As vice-chairman of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, I have seen our membership evolve over the years. Barely a decade ago, our members came mostly from government-linked companies, infrastructure providers, mining and energy firms, and logistics, finance and business institutions. Today, a significant part of our membership hails from technology start-ups, including Tokocrypto.

In March, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong jointly announced the launch of the Tech:X Programme – a new initiative allowing young tech professionals to work and gain exposure in each other’s countries for up to a year. Eligible professionals must be below 30 and have graduated not more than five years before from a list of accepted universities.

If you are a young Singaporean professional looking to advance your career in the technology or venture capital industry, you should seriously consider a stint in Indonesia.

But come with open eyes. Indonesia is a country that constantly surprises, and is as different from Singapore as chalk is from cheese. So leave your preconceptions at the door, pay attention to your surroundings, be curious, and allow room for new things in your life to take place. Jakarta is a veritable melting pot of people who have travelled across the archipelago to seek their fortunes.

But like the pungent fruit of its official nickname, the Big Durian, the Indonesian capital can be polarising. You either love it or hate it. Most expatriates here will stay for either two years or 20 years.

It’s clearly not for everyone. Some expats make up their minds quite quickly that Jakarta’s living conditions are unacceptable in the long term. They decide within a few hours of making landfall that they cannot live with its congestion, pollution, inefficiency and infamous traffic jams, and return home or leave for their next adventure immediately after completing their initial stint, albeit slightly richer for the experience.

For the rest of us who can look past the initial and admittedly superficial challenges of living in this South-east Asian metropolis, Indonesia can be a rewarding place to build a long-term career as it allows you to build a useful regional network, make new friends, learn a new language, discover a new culture, and try some of the most delicious food in the world.

Joel Shen is head of global law firm Withers’ Indonesia practice. Prior to the pandemic, he lived and worked in Jakarta for more than a decade.

This article was first published in The Straits Times here.