REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- It is viewed as being increasingly paramount for the government to intensify dissemination of information on online financial literacy among Indonesians to boost the e-commerce potential based on the rapid increase in Indonesia's internet users.

"The government should step up the dissemination of more information on online financial literacy in Indonesia. With a rise in the public financial literacy in the community, the potential for electronic commerce can be increased," researcher of Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) Galuh Octania noted in a statement in Jakarta on Friday.

Octania pointed to electronic commerce in Indonesia continuing to face challenges in the form of low online financial literacy among people. In fact, she noted that online financial transactions proffered varied benefits, including the efficiency of lowering the time of transactions that can aid in improving services.

Furthermore, digital financial transactions are expected to bolster the government's efforts to lessen money supply that will affect the inflation rate. The Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII) had earlier reported the number of internet users in the country in 2018 reaching 171 million out of the total population of 264 million.

According to the APJII data, published last May, Indonesia's internet penetration level last year was recorded at 64.8 percent. The results were obtained from a survey and profiling of internet users that ran from March 9, 2019, to April 14, 2019, and involved 5,900 respondents, who use the internet for at least four months from the time of data collection.

Through the survey, the APJII also found that the number of internet users in Indonesia increased by as much as 27.9 million people, or 10.12 percent, in a year. On the basis of the data, Java accounted for the largest number of internet users, reaching nearly 55 percent, while Sumatra was the second-largest contributor, at 21 percent.

The percentage of internet users in Kalimantan had reached nine percent, while Bali and Nusa Tenggara had an internet penetration level of five percent. In the meantime, Sulawesi-Maluku-Papua contributed 10 percent of the total internet users in Indonesia.

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