Long before Sun Microsystems made the Java programming language ubiquitous in the 1990s, the Dutch began planting coffee trees on the island of Java as far back as the 17th century. Initially the seeds were from the Arabica coffee tree. This was later replaced with the Liberica coffee plant, and much later with Robusta, which is the current coffee tree in Java.

Today, Java is slang for coffee, as well as for web programming. The roots of both come from the Indonesian island of Java, where the capital Jakarta is located. Java was once the center of powerful Hindu kingdoms and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies. About 130 mn people live on Java today, making it the most populous island in the world.

Why focus on Indonesia this month? For two reasons: One, August 17 is Indonesias Independence Day. The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century. In 1942, Japanese troops invaded the islands and occupied them till 1945.

RAJU CHELLAM

Two, small and medium businesses in Indonesia will spend $7.2 bn on computing and telecoms this year, up 11% over 2007. More than 99% of SMBs are SBs; they will account for 75% of the total infocomm spend. According to AMI surveys, about 80% of these SBs are startups, these in turn will account for 50% of the SB spend on infocomm this year.

A big push comes from the government, under President Yudhoyono, a retired military general. Under him, Indonesias debt has fallen, foreign exchange reserves are at an all-time high of $50 bn, and its stock market has been one of the three best performers in the world in 2006 and 2007.

Dr Yudhoyono has reformed income tax and customs, introduced treasury bills, and is actively seeks foreign investment and talent. Despite this, Indonesia still has considerable poverty and unemployment, poor infrastructure, and a complex bureaucracy. It is obviously not easy to govern the worlds largest archipelago of 17,508 islands and a population of 238 mn where 49% of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

The good thing about Indonesia is that the population is young and many are eager to go into business. The average age of SB owners is 33 years. More than 66% of these owners/managers have a graduate degree. Boosted by a spurt in domestic demand, this youthful bunch of decision makers are ready to take risks and reap rewards. More than 40% of SMBs expect to grow about 20% in 2008. The optimism is also prodding more SMBs to consider hiring more people, which is good to cut down huge unemployment.

The country is divided into 30 provinces, has a GDP of $411 bn and a GDP per capita of $3,400. About 63 mn cellphones exist in Indonesia and there are about 20 mn Internet users. How can India benefit from this huge opportunity?

• Jet out: Indian talent and Indian investment is welcome in Indonesia. It is a huge market, a huge opportunity with a huge population base that is hungry for technology, talent and thought leadership.
• Add value: Indonesians like solutions that are highly cost effective and easy to deploy. Indian firms can tailor existing solutions to cater to markets like these worldwide.
• VoIP: VoIP and IP telephony are attractive from a toll bypass mode to help cut calling costs. Do Indian companies have any solutions in this space?
• Add channels: The best way to reach out to people and businesses is through channel partners, systems integrators, and value added resellers.

It would be great if Indian companies can seize the Java opportunity in Java and taste the Robusta aroma of success.

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