Indonesian-German working groups on data protection and AI governance hold their first meetings

Bringing together representatives from business, academia, civil society and international organisations, the working groups provide a platform to exchange experiences, identify practical challenges and foster collaboration between Indonesia and Germany.

From data protection principles to practical implementation

As digital services and data-driven businesses increasingly operate across borders, international alignment of data protection principles is important for organisations to share and use data responsibly.

The participants of the working group on data protection highlighted several practical issues - such as the implementation of data protection requirements, cross-border data flows, adequacy mechanisms and the respective roles of Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) and Data Protection Officers (DPOs). Experiences from Germany and the European Union provided useful perspectives on how these mechanisms operate in practice. At the same time, the discussion revealed that approaches cannot simply be transferred from one context to another as Indonesia's regulatory and institutional landscapes presents its own opportunities and challenges.

Enabling responsible AI

The AI governance working group explored the question on how AI governance can support responsible innovation without creating barriers to development and adoption. This question is of high relevance at the moment, as Indonesia is currently developing its framework for responsible and human-centred AI. The participants of the working group shared different approaches that work in practice.

A recurring theme was the relationship between AI and data. Data is a fundamental resource for developing, training and deploying many AI systems, so that responsible and lawful access to data is closely linked to AI governance and AI innovation. The participants agreed that data access and data protection should be considered together. A clear and practical regulatory framework that addresses both can help protect individuals while also giving businesses greater certainty when developing and using AI applications.

From dialogue to action

The discussions of the working groups are only the starting point. The next phase of the Indonesian-German Digital Dialogue will focus on translating these exchanges into practical collaboration.

The working groups are now developing an action plan that identifies priority areas for cooperation. Potential activities include knowledge exchange, practical guidance, sharing of case studies and experiences, and continued dialogue between relevant stakeholders. The aim is to create opportunities for stakeholders to move from discussing common challenges to exploring how these challenges can be addressed in practice.