Indonesia named Budi Arie Setiadi as the new minister of communications and information technology, replacing Johnny Gerard Plate who was detained as part of an ongoing corruption case.
Setiadi was deputy minister for villages, disadvantaged regions and transmigration and head of Projo, a supporter group of President Joko Widodo. Setiadi is to serve the new post until the current administration ends in October 2024.
Plate has been named a suspect by the Attorney General’s Office in the corruption probe involving a 4G wireless base transceiver station (BTS) project led by an agency under his ministry. Authorities have estimated up to 8 trillion rupiah ($534.8 million) in state losses from the case.
“We have very little time left, less than one and a half year,” Jokowi, as the president is known, said after an inauguration ceremony in Jakarta on Monday. “I want BTS completion prioritized. BTS must continue because it relates to services to the community, especially in disadvantaged areas.”
Other appointments:
- Nezar Patria, a former journalist, was named as deputy minister to help oversee tech-related matters such as data sovereignty, artificial intelligence and spectrum frequencies.
- Indonesian ambassor for the US Rosan Perkasa Roeslani was appointed a deputy at the state-owned enterprises ministry, replacing Pahala Mansury, who became deputy minister of foreign affairs.
(Updates with deputy minister appointments, comments from Jokowi.)
