Event Reports

The newly established EuroCham Technology Working Group met on 21 May 2019 to specifically discussed priority issues already summarized in the Technology Position Papers 2019. The papers among other offers member observations on data protection and digital identity aspects. In this group meeting, Mr. Antoine Schweitzer, Country Director of IDEMIA, presented two legal bases currently in place in Europe regulating these topics, namely the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Directive (DP Directive). For Indonesia context, the government is currently drafting a draft bill on personal data protection. The group sees the importance of encouraging the government of Indonesia to align data protection regime in Indonesia with the already established GDPR and DP Directive frameworks. To encourage an open dialogue with the policy maker, as an upcoming activity, the group is arranging a policy meeting with an Expert Staff of the Minister of Communication and Informatics.

On 17 May 2019, few representatives of the EuroCham Transport and Logistic Working Group met with Mr. Rusdi Yanis, Section Head of Tax Regulation I of Directorate General of Tax. The meeting took place at EuroCham office and discussed the newly implemented Minister of Finance Regulation No. 32/PMK.010/2019. Under this new regulation the government applies an expansion of the types of services whose exports can be subjected to zero percent VAT. One service that also receives this tax incentive is freight forwarding, which in the context of export can also be zero rated if complying to the stipulated requirements to prove the transaction is based on a written agreement, and that a prove of payment can be presented to the Directorate General of Tax. However, there are still remaining challenges for the implementation of this new tax facility by global logistics companies, especially related netting mechanism normally adopted by multinational companies to prove their transactions. During this meeting, EuroCham encouraged the Directorate General of Tax also to organize a separate socialization event to a larger audience within EuroCham member companies.