Jakarta and Berlin are celebrating its 25th Sister City Partnership Anniversary. To celebrate the event, Jakarta Provincial Government with Jakarta Smart City and the Government of the City-State Berlin with StartUp Asia Berlinare working on innovative solutions for their city’s challenges through "The Good Idea Jam"which took place Thursday morning (1/8), in Balai Agung, Jakarta City Hall. This collaborative event aims to find innovative solutions to answer urban challenges with covered topics including Smart City, Urban Mobility and Urban Environment.

The event which was attended by Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Indonesia, ASEAN and Timor-Leste, Peter Schoof, StartUp from Germany and Indonesia, and Jakarta Governance Officials aimed to forge stronger ties between partners in Germany and Indonesia, to boost the exchange of ideas between business, and to develop feasible Smart City solutions. Participants will have the opportunity to gain access to important networks of government officials, entrepreneurs and potential partners in order to work on concrete, implementable and powerful concepts for city challenges. 

The Governor of Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, conveyed the Jakarta-Berlin equation and importance of the event to share ideas and find solutions to problems in Jakarta. ”Jakarta and Berlin, we both face challenges. The Challenges may not be the same in term of item of challenges. But I think the basic is the same. We both are growing city. We both are facing dynamic challenges. We like to find solutions that is new, that is breakthough,"said Governor Anies when opening the event. Also present at the event, was the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Indonesia, ASEAN and Timor-Leste, Peter Schoof.

Governor Anies stated that one of the challenges for Jakarta is the transformation of the use of private vehicles to public transportation. Through the JakLingko program, Governor Anies explain that the integration of public transportation modes is the key to overcome vehicle problems in Jakarta. "The challenge is how can we make this continue and expand further. Because when that happens, then we will have less private motor vehicle on our roads. And if we have less motor vehicle on our roads, we have less pollution, we have less traffic. And for that, we need new ideas. We need fresh ideas. How can we expand further especially on the new life style of using public transport and using emission free transport," said Governor Anies further.

Governor Anies also stated that Jakarta is ready to accept every critical question that arises in the forum so that contemporary solutions and the latest breakthroughs can appear. Governor Anies also underlined the importance of adapting policy program rather than just adopting something that proved successful somewhere but not necessarily suitable to be implemented in Jakarta. "And allow me to also give some view that Jakarta, you are coming to right city. Because not a long ago, Global Startup Ecosystems Report by Startup Genome named Jakarta on the list of Global City which are set to challenge the domination of Global Startup Ecosystem such as Silicon Valley and Beijing. This is a good news from us, which mean we have to promote further that Ecosystem. And I do hope this meeting will contribute to that." Said Governor Anies.

Meanwhile, Head of the DKI Jakarta Provincial Office of Communication, Information and Statistics, Atika Nur Rahmania at her keynote speech said the importance of technology to overcome Jakarta's current issues. Through a single integrated Cepat Respon Masyarakat (CRM) system, the government can manage 15,000 complaints in a month to be handled effectively by work units throughout the Jakarta area. "These collaborations between government and citizens have inspired us to pursue City 4.0 concept. Unlike City 1.0 or 02 or even 3.0, the City 4.0 placed the government as the collaborators rather than the administrator while the citizen acts as co-creator. This enables the government to work with citizens to solve common problems. We hope this event can generate new ideas to improve Jakarta." said Atika.

Since the beginning of their partnership in 1993, Jakarta and Berlin has focused primarily on culture and sports. In 2016, the focus has shifted on how to connect their Startup ecosystems. Through the programme “Experts for municipal partnerships worldwide” by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), an integrated expert from Berlin has been posted at Jakarta Provincial Government in 2019 to support the partnership. This joint activity initiated by both Jakarta and Berlin is supported by German development cooperation.