Harnessing digital government for place-based innovation policy: insights from Jakarta

As more governments around the world seek to harness the power of digital technologies to approach policy and governance, there is growing recognition of the importance of local context in shaping the success of such initiatives. Place-based innovation policy offers a framework for tailoring government strategies to the unique needs and capabilities of different regions by acknowledging a different need of each city and region. Using Jakarta as a case study, this paper explores the challenges and opportunities of implementing digital government for place-based innovation policy in a populated metropolitan city with complex administrative structures. Drawing from empirical study and literature reviews, this paper analyzes the ways in which Jakarta's government has sought to leverage digital technologies as a tool to influence place-based innovation policy and its impact to the wider population, especially in times of crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper suggests the mainstreaming of mission-oriented approach to catalyze place-based innovation policy across government agencies, private sectors, and civil society.


INTRODUCTION
Innovation has become an essential driver of growth and development across different sectors, including the government.However, not all regions have the same level of access to the resources and networks necessary to foster innovation.There has been a growing interest in place-based innovation policy, which seeks to leverage the unique strengths and needs of different regions to promote innovation and economic development.With the rise of digital technologies and the growing importance of the digital economy, many governments are exploring new ways to use place-based innovation policy to support digital transformation initiatives.Digital government initiatives in Jakarta were led by Jakarta Smart City (JSC) that connects the citizens as a co-creator and government as a collaborator [1].This paper will explore the impact of Jakarta's digital transformation initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic as an implementation of place-based innovation policy by discussing some of the key challenges and opportunities.

Digital government in Jakarta
Despite the fact that the digital sector is facing 'up and down' waves as a result of global concerns, digitalization in Indonesia is still progressing swiftly and has the potential to reach a digital golden age.There is no single definition of digital government as governments seek creative digital solutions to social, economic, political, and other pressures, and as they transform themselves in the process, the Digital Government landscape is constantly evolving to reflect this.Janowski proposed a Digital Government Evolution Model that has four phases in the evolution of the concept: digitization (technology in government), transformation (electronic government), engagement (electronic governance), and contextualization (policy-driven electronic governance) [2].
It is highly advantageous for the government institution to utilise technology and data analytics in decision-making.Case in point: the COVID-19 pandemic.As a capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta plays a significant role in the formulation of COVID-19 pandemic-related policies.DKI Jakarta Province government takes into account a variety of factors, including the health aspect, health facilities limitation, the advancement of research and science, as well as economic, social, and psychological factors.In this circumstance, the government can benefit from data and analysis [3].The Use of Big Data in The Public Policy Process: Paving the Way to Evidence-Based Governance reports that data can be used to improve government transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, and service providers based on a better understanding of the needs and demands of citizens as well as more informed policymaking.[4].

Place-based innovation policy
It is inevitable that many cities and regions need a tailored solution to specifically address their innovation potential [5].It is known that no single best practice in implementing policy, but learnings from areas from similar contexts might bring benefits.Transitioning from Figure 1: Agile development method [7] excellence-oriented approach to a broad-based or place-based policy has been growing in the European countries, but the literature on Southeast Asian context with large population is limited.
Innovation itself can be defined through various perspectives.Joseph Schumpeter, one of the influential thinkers of innovation, made a distinction between invention, which refers to a new idea or concept, and innovation, which involves putting the idea into practice [6].Enabling innovation within the government is crucial, as many of the issues that emerged in the public sector has a pathdependency that affects other issues rather than solely solving a narrow area.Having Jakarta Smart City as a catalyst to work on digital government initiative to reach the mission set by the government has enabled Jakarta's government to work outside their regular activities, such as the enablement of agile development within the public sector.OECD [5] defines some key principles that enables place-based or broad-based policy to be implemented and it is aligned with the dynamics in Jakarta Smart City, such as build a regional innovation system, developing adaptive system, integrate learning into policy development, embrace disruptions, and foster integration between policy domains and stakeholders.Given this, Jakarta Smart City aim to enable the ecosystem of place-based innovation policy, and this paper will explore some of the key examples of the initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TECHNOLOGY AND DATA UTILISATION: DESIGN SYSTEM AND DATA PIPELINE
Teams and divisions in Jakarta Smart City collaborate on the design of a web-based system and application for the corona website, particularly the IT development team and the data analytics team.For development, as depicted in Figure 1, the agile development methodology was employed for the development of the corona website project.It begins by determining system needs, both functional and nonfunctional.Accessibility, capacity, and compatibility are key functional requirements for business operations [7].Accessibility means that the system can be used by a vast audience on any internetconnected device without any operating system restrictions.Capacity denotes the system's capability to store and present various Non-functional requirements pertain to the performance of the website and include operational requirements, performance requirements (pertaining to loading time), security requirements (using ISO 27001 standards), and cultural and political requirements (pertaining to language translation and time zone) [7].The process employs an agile development methodology, which can accommodate the requirements of stakeholders who are volatile and highly adaptable to unforeseen events [8].
The series of steps known as a "data pipeline" allows data from one system to be moved to and used by another system, in particular analytics, data science, or AI and machine learning system.A data pipeline consists of organised, sequential operations for managing and preparing data [9].For data pipeline, we can see from Figure 2, a data pipeline functions by gathering data from various sources and transforming unprocessed data into data that is suitable for analytics, applications, and digital products.Refer to COVID-19 case in Jakarta, when the project was started, Data Analytics Team of Jakarta Smart City discovered that the data input system was not integrated which led to some potential problems including the lack of comprehensive data analysis and visualization.To prevent bigger problems from arising such as the collapse of the system, the team dedicated themselves to design an end-to-end data pipeline.In designing the pipeline, our data engineering team were led to set up an automation system so that the data input could be analysed more seamlessly.In leading the team, a comprehensive technical documentation was compiled which guided them in the process of creating one single source of truth out of multiple sources.

IMPACT ON POLICY AND RESEARCH
The implementation of Jakarta's COVID-19 website has been a critical tool for the city's government in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.A real-time data on the number of cases, maps, and information has helped the government to allocate resources and implement measures to control the pandemic effectively [7], including the implementation of social distancing measures, such as restrictions on gatherings and the closure of public spaces.With the COVID-19 website providing up-to-date information, the government has been able to respond quickly and effectively to new developments, making it an essential tool in the city's pandemic response.

Social restrictions policies
First, the data was being used as a basis for a Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) that was rolled out on April 9, 2020 by Jakarta's governor.PSBB was assigned by the central government, but implemented in a certain area within the city-level governance [10].Additionally, it has been a source of truth for the public as a governmentto-citizen (G2C) action that enables the people to keep track of the current cases and make an informed decision that supports individual behavior towards the pandemic.
Another notable example in Jakarta that affected from this initiative is the odd-even policy for vehicle license plate, which restricts the use of vehicles based on their license plate numbers in order to restrict citizen's activities within the city and reduce the spread of the virus.By using data from the COVID-19 database, the government has been able to identify areas with high infection rates and adjust the odd-even policy accordingly, allowing vehicles with odd-even numbered plates to travel on certain days.This dynamic approach to policy-making has been made possible by the use of real-time data and a coordinated effort to leverage digital technologies to improve governance and service delivery in Jakarta.The results demonstrate that Jakarta's odd-even policy has a significant impact on private transportation mobility, public transportation mobility, and the COVID-19 positivity rate [11].

Health research
Data collected in this digital government initiative also contributed to academic research in health that is connected to the central government initiative in related to COVID-19.Research on clinical characteristics and mortality associated with COVID-19 in Jakarta where risk factors associated with in-hospital mortality in Jakarta, Indonesia are comparable to those in more developed settings in North America, Europe, and Asia, with advanced age and comorbidities dominating [12].Second, it has contributed to a research on diabetes mellitus (DM) on COVID-19 clinical symptoms and mortality: the COVID-19 registry in Jakarta.In the DM group, the COVID-19 mortality rate was considerably higher than in the non-DM group (2.77%) [adjusted RR 1.98 (95% CI: 1.57-2.51),p 0.001].Additionally, COVID-19 patients with diabetes developed more symptoms on average.Diabetes mellitus is not only associated with the development of more COVID-19 clinical symptoms, but also with an increased risk of COVID-19 mortality [13].

DISCUSSION AND INSIGHTS
The implementation of digital government initiatives for placebased innovation policy poses several challenges and implications.One of the significant challenges is to remove the barriers of collaboration between the central and local governments.In dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in Jakarta, a collaborative approach was utilised.Digital government was also part of the smart city solutions.In COVID-19 case in Jakarta, the digital product, the website was created through a collaboration between the Communications, Informatics, and Statistics Office of Jakarta, the Health Office of Jakarta, and the Spatial Planning and Land Administration Office of Jakarta.The website provides citizens with easy access to public data, information, and knowledge about COVID-19 in Jakarta [14].The Data Team instructed the Public Health and Spatial Agencies representatives on how to efficiently enter COVID-19 data.Because they were accustomed to the previous input method, they were initially resistant to adopting the new system.In order to address this issue, the team addressed the head of each agency to explain the need for an immediate transition, as the use of an integrated data input system would contribute to an increase in long-term productivity.After that, we engaged in regular discussions, training, and monitoring to enable them to develop the habit of entering data with precision and consistency.We successfully migrated the COVID-19 data from multiple sources into a comprehensive single database after several months of laborious work.
During times of crisis, the importance of place-based innovation policy has become apparent, specifically by prioritizing health as a mission.Enabling mission-driven approaches in the government to work together towards a common goal as the idea of applying place-based innovation policy can provide an opportunity to assess government capabilities and push innovation forward [15].By bringing together various government agencies, civil society, and private sector entities, Jakarta has been able to collaborate and develop effective solutions to address health challenges, specifically on the COVID-19 emergencies.These initiatives have enabled policymakers to make more informed decisions and allocate resources more effectively, highlighting the importance of placing health as a priority and enabling a mission-driven approach to innovation in government.

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: Data Pipeline for data-driven analytics