UNSYIAH Holds a Workshop on Digitalization Program and Smart City of Banda Aceh

Office of International Affairs (OIA) of Universitas Syiah Kuala (UNSYIAH) in collaboration with BAPPEDA Banda Aceh and UNDP (United Nations Development Program) successfully held a workshop themed “Digital Inclusion in Banda Aceh as Resilient City Initiative (RRU) Project, 17 December 2020, Bappeda Hall, Banda Aceh.

The workshop aims to present the progress result of “Program Digital Inclusion in Banda Aceh as Resilient City”. The survey was done earlier by the OIA team at 47 villages located nearby the coast in Banda Aceh.

The Chief of BAPPEDA, Weri, SE.,MA, opened the workshop officially. He said the project of “Digital Inclusion in Banda Aceh as Resilient City Initiative (RRU) was accepted with pleasant by the Aceh government. Currently, Banda Aceh was assigned as one of the Project Pilot for 100 Smart City, so this project can be a great linking to the city program, moreover, the project concerns disaster management, disability society, women activist, and so on.

Dr. Muzailin Affan, the chairman of OIA UNSYIAH, added “this digitalization project gives us a big chance and several advantages, especially it can help us and societies not only in daily life works but also does support government program called the Banda Aceh Smart City. I do hope that this program can be more successful in the future”. 

Christian Usfinit, the Team Leader of Resilient and Reconstruction of UNDP delivered “the progress result shows a great commitment from all parties who have supported the project until now, especially the Banda Aceh government. We hope the usage of digital inclusion through smartphone applications can increase more, and it might be used by the government, societies, or even institutions needed, especially in the case of disaster mitigation and management”.

The workshop then was continued with the presentations from speakers. The first speaker was Syaifuddin Yana, the Project Leader.  He explained the overview of Banda Aceh City, the survey that was done by the team earlier, the distribution of hearing aids and smartphones for societies, digitalization training for societies, also several achievement and plans that will be managed in the future.

Meanwhile, the second speaker, Muhammad Iqbal, the Leader of the Project Coordinator presented the Action Plan and Roadmap 2020 that was linked with the Banda Aceh program. Besides, he also introduced INARISK, a smartphone application that helps users to gain information about disaster threats, vulnerabilities, capacities, and disaster risks. The application is recognized to assist and find out disaster risk information provided to reduce the risk. On that occasion, a demonstration of how to use INARISK was done. It was used by one member from the disability deaf group. It showed the use of the INARISK application could give him quick and right information although he has difficulties in speaking and hearing.

Besides, Rizwan, a representative from KIMONFOTIK Banda Aceh also introduced another smart application called E-Lapor. It is a smartphone application that provides by the government to help societies in reporting. People can use the apps to report or complain about certain issues through the internet, without visiting the office directly.

The workshop was done virtually and attended by delegations from BAPPEDA, KOMINFOTIK, BPBD, Dinas Pendidikan Tekkomdik, PRB, Women Activist group, ICON+, Informatics UNSYIAH, work unit of ICT UNSYIAH, Museum Tsunami Aceh, Disability Communities, and many others.