Jakarta. Presidential economic advisor Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has floated the idea of having Indonesia’s customs body run on artificial intelligence or AI, as Jakarta forges ahead with a new trade regime.

President Prabowo Subianto recently ordered a major shake-up of the country's natural resource trade, arguing that Indonesia had lost $908 billion from decades of export under-invoicing. Central to this plan is having all strategic commodity exports handled by a single entity: Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia (DSI).

Luhut admitted on Monday that he could not give the exact estimate of the possible economic boon that these changes would bring, only saying that it would be “quite huge”. Jakarta will tap AI technologies to make sure that exporters are being honest with how much they are shipping overseas. He is even confident that nothing will escape AI.

“The new system won’t create chaos or whatsoever because we will embrace AI,” Luhut said in Jakarta, when asked about DSI.

“I trust digitalization. Involving humans is risky, as problems are bound to happen, even if there is an integrity pact. … So [using AI] will ramp our state revenue.”

The outspoken ex-minister was open to having reforms within Indonesia’s customs office, now that the AI-powered DSI exists.

“If the customs and excise directorate general is unnecessary, why is there a need for one? If we do keep it, perhaps we can have it entirely run on AI," Luhut said.

Luhut, who was the investment tsar under the previous Joko “Jokowi” Widodo rule, has long been promoting the so-called “Simbara” project. This is a digital platform that keeps a close eye on coal and tin miners, including whether they have paid their state obligations. He signaled the possibility of implementing Simbara in the upcoming export scheme. 

Exporters of palm oil, coal, and ferroalloys will begin to report their sales to DSI from June 1. The entity will eventually take control of all processes, starting from the contracts, payments, and shipping, by 2027. 

Senior minister Airlangga Hartarto had said that the DSI would clear data mismatches with foreign partners, including with the US, a country that has been fretting about the enormity of its trade deficits.

“Oftentimes, our export data does not match the import data of our partners. Our data puts the US trade deficit somewhere between $16 billion and $17 billion. But Washington states its negative trade balance is $20 billion,” Airlangga told industry associations not long ago.

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