Strengthening Bilateral ICT Partnerships to Support Infrastructure Transformation: Indonesia and South Korea Tackle Non-Revenue Water Through Technology
June 7th 2023 | Jakarta, Indonesia
Strengthening Bilateral ICT Partnerships to Support Infrastructure Transformation
Indonesia and South Korea continue to expand strategic cooperation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, increasingly focusing on deploying digital solutions to solve real-world infrastructure challenges. This approach is anchored in both nations’ development goals and reflects a pragmatic shift toward outcomes-based collaboration, particularly in sectors such as utilities, housing, and public services.
During the 2023 Indonesia - Korea ICT Business & Contents Partnership, supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Seoul-based WI.Plat Co. Ltd., a technology company specializing in AI-powered water infrastructure diagnostics, and PT SUPRA International Indonesia, a domestic engineering firm engaged in utility technologies. This collaboration marks a significant step toward leveraging AI, sensors, and data analytics to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) losses in Indonesia.
The initiative is further reinforced by Indonesia’s domestic agenda for digital transformation in public utilities, supported by Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat (PUPR), which has emphasized the importance of smart infrastructure in post-disaster housing projects and water network rehabilitation. Concurrently, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (KemenKopUKM), led by Minister Teten Masduki, has positioned international technology cooperation as a lever for elevating Indonesia’s fifth-largest startup ecosystem into global markets.
“Strategic partnerships like this not only bring in advanced technologies but also open up global market access for Indonesian startups,” Minister Teten noted during the event. “Digital innovation needs to address public needs at scale, and collaborations with technologically advanced countries such as South Korea can accelerate this process.”
Intelligent Leak Detection: A Practical Application of AI in Public Utilities
The issue of NRW, defined as water lost before it reaches the end user, remains a critical operational and financial challenge for water utilities. In Indonesia, particularly in secondary cities and post-disaster areas with aging or newly built networks, leakage rates have consistently hovered above 30%, contributing to service disruption and inefficient asset utilization.
The joint solution developed under the SUPRA - WI.Plat collaboration uses a hybrid model of AI-driven leakage prediction, sensor-based acoustic detection, and mobile-enabled inspection platforms, allowing utilities to transition from reactive troubleshooting to proactive maintenance. Technicians and inspectors are supported with geospatial dashboards and anomaly detection tools, enabling rapid field deployment and more targeted repairs.
This represents a shift from traditional water management models toward a digitally mediated, risk-informed framework for utility oversight. For newly rehabilitated housing developments, such as those in Central Sulawesi following the 2018 Palu earthquake and tsunami, such technology becomes particularly relevant, where subsurface leakages are difficult to detect without intrusive excavation or resource-intensive manual surveys.
Reframing Smart Water Infrastructure in the ASEAN Context
Indonesia’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing has increasingly advocated for embedding smart monitoring technologies into state-funded infrastructure projects, particularly in disaster recovery zones where long-term maintenance capabilities are limited. As donor-funded reconstruction programs evolve, the emphasis is shifting from physical rebuilding to resilience-building, where technology plays a central role in life-cycle infrastructure performance.
For South Korea, this cooperation aligns with a broader effort to expand the global footprint of its high-tech SMEs through structured engagement with ASEAN markets. The Ministry of Science and ICT has been actively facilitating overseas deployment of digital public service technologies, positioning its domestic innovators as solution providers for global infrastructure modernization.
What emerges from this collaboration is not just an exchange of software and hardware, but a shared institutional learning process, how to govern, manage, and scale digital utility systems in diverse, resource-constrained contexts. As pressure mounts on urban systems due to population growth and climate variability, digital water infrastructure becomes not just a matter of efficiency, but of adaptive capacity.
As this Indonesia - Korea initiative matures, attention is likely to turn to its integration within broader national utility strategies, including regulatory support, capacity building, and long-term funding models. In time, it may form the basis for a regional model of digitally augmented infrastructure development, one grounded in bilateral trust, scalable design, and measurable public value.
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Strengthening Bilateral ICT Partnerships to Support Infrastructure Transformation
Indonesia and South Korea continue to expand strategic cooperation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, increasingly focusing on deploying digital solutions to solve real-world infrastructure challenges. This approach is anchored in both nations’ development goals and reflects a pragmatic shift toward outcomes-based collaboration, particularly in sectors such as utilities, housing, and public services.
During the 2023 Indonesia - Korea ICT Business & Contents Partnership, supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Seoul-based WI.Plat Co. Ltd., a technology company specializing in AI-powered water infrastructure diagnostics, and PT SUPRA International Indonesia, a domestic engineering firm engaged in utility technologies. This collaboration marks a significant step toward leveraging AI, sensors, and data analytics to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) losses in Indonesia.
The initiative is further reinforced by Indonesia’s domestic agenda for digital transformation in public utilities, supported by Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat (PUPR), which has emphasized the importance of smart infrastructure in post-disaster housing projects and water network rehabilitation. Concurrently, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (KemenKopUKM), led by Minister Teten Masduki, has positioned international technology cooperation as a lever for elevating Indonesia’s fifth-largest startup ecosystem into global markets.
“Strategic partnerships like this not only bring in advanced technologies but also open up global market access for Indonesian startups,” Minister Teten noted during the event. “Digital innovation needs to address public needs at scale, and collaborations with technologically advanced countries such as South Korea can accelerate this process.”
Intelligent Leak Detection: A Practical Application of AI in Public Utilities
The issue of NRW, defined as water lost before it reaches the end user, remains a critical operational and financial challenge for water utilities. In Indonesia, particularly in secondary cities and post-disaster areas with aging or newly built networks, leakage rates have consistently hovered above 30%, contributing to service disruption and inefficient asset utilization.
The joint solution developed under the SUPRA - WI.Plat collaboration uses a hybrid model of AI-driven leakage prediction, sensor-based acoustic detection, and mobile-enabled inspection platforms, allowing utilities to transition from reactive troubleshooting to proactive maintenance. Technicians and inspectors are supported with geospatial dashboards and anomaly detection tools, enabling rapid field deployment and more targeted repairs.
This represents a shift from traditional water management models toward a digitally mediated, risk-informed framework for utility oversight. For newly rehabilitated housing developments, such as those in Central Sulawesi following the 2018 Palu earthquake and tsunami, such technology becomes particularly relevant, where subsurface leakages are difficult to detect without intrusive excavation or resource-intensive manual surveys.
Reframing Smart Water Infrastructure in the ASEAN Context
Indonesia’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing has increasingly advocated for embedding smart monitoring technologies into state-funded infrastructure projects, particularly in disaster recovery zones where long-term maintenance capabilities are limited. As donor-funded reconstruction programs evolve, the emphasis is shifting from physical rebuilding to resilience-building, where technology plays a central role in life-cycle infrastructure performance.
For South Korea, this cooperation aligns with a broader effort to expand the global footprint of its high-tech SMEs through structured engagement with ASEAN markets. The Ministry of Science and ICT has been actively facilitating overseas deployment of digital public service technologies, positioning its domestic innovators as solution providers for global infrastructure modernization.
What emerges from this collaboration is not just an exchange of software and hardware, but a shared institutional learning process, how to govern, manage, and scale digital utility systems in diverse, resource-constrained contexts. As pressure mounts on urban systems due to population growth and climate variability, digital water infrastructure becomes not just a matter of efficiency, but of adaptive capacity.
As this Indonesia - Korea initiative matures, attention is likely to turn to its integration within broader national utility strategies, including regulatory support, capacity building, and long-term funding models. In time, it may form the basis for a regional model of digitally augmented infrastructure development, one grounded in bilateral trust, scalable design, and measurable public value.
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