JAKARTA, Indonesia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2025--
FPT Corporation, Vietnam’s leading technology conglomerate and the Ministry of National Development Planning of the Republic of Indonesia (Bappenas) have signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance Indonesia’s digital transformation, foster innovation, and develop future-ready digital talent in support of the nation’s long-term vision, Golden Indonesia 2045.
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The MoU marks a significant milestone in Indonesia’s commitment to harnessing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), green technology, and smart city solutions to drive inclusive and sustainable national development. This partnership also highlights FPT’s commitment to the Indonesian market since 2012, further strengthened after the recently upgraded comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Indonesia.
Under this five-year agreement, the two parties will collaborate on a wide range of strategic initiatives aimed at accelerating Indonesia’s digital transformation. This includes the joint development of national and sectoral digital transformation strategies, with a focus on enhancing digital governance through the implementation of e-Government systems, Smart Planning frameworks, and e-Monitoring platforms.
A key pillar of the collaboration is digital talent development. The parties will design and implement comprehensive upskilling and reskilling programs in critical areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, software engineering, and data science. These programs will target civil servants, students, and young professionals across Indonesia to build a future-ready workforce.
The partnership will also drive joint innovation through pilot projects using AI, green tech, and smart agriculture to tackle challenges in urban management and sustainability. FPT will offer strategic advice and policy input to help shape Indonesia’s digital economy, focusing on sectors like logistics, fintech, and digital infrastructure.
Finally, the agreement promotes academic and cultural exchange by creating opportunities for Indonesian and Vietnamese students and faculty to collaborate through FPT’s global education network, further strengthening people-to-people ties and knowledge sharing between the two nations.
This partnership stems from discussions held during the visit of the Indonesian government delegation to FPT in April 2025, led by H.E. Rachmat Pambudy, Indonesia's Minister of National Development Planning and Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). During the visit, both sides explored new avenues for collaboration, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and talent development. With this collaboration, FPT expects to support Indonesia’s Golden Indonesia 2045 vision, which identifies AI as a key driver of future economic growth.
“This MoU is more than just ceremonial. It is a strategic step towards a solid partnership between Indonesia and Vietnam. In order to fulfill the Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision, we must harness technology, strengthen our industrial base, and invest in future digital talent,” explained the Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Rachmat Pambudy, on Thursday, 12 June.
The Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas hopes this cooperation will further solidify the foundation for Indonesia and Vietnam to become leading digital powers in Southeast Asia. “Through this collaboration, we are not only strengthening our national technological capacity but also creating a shared future that is inclusive, sustainable, and rich in innovation for both Indonesia and Vietnam,” concluded Minister Rachmat.
“FPT is deeply honored to partner with the Government of Indonesia on this transformative journey. Our commitment goes beyond technology. We are here to co-create a future where digital innovation empowers people, strengthens economies, and drives sustainable growth,” Nguyen Van Khoa, FPT Corporation CEO, affirmed. “Together with the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, we aim to build a resilient digital ecosystem that not only supports Indonesia’s national vision but also contributes to a more connected and digitally advanced Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific region.”
FPT entered the Indonesian market in 2017 and has since then affirmed its position as a trusted IT partner. The company recently signed a $67 million USD agreement with KMP Aryadhana and an AI partnership with Indonesia’s state-owned oil and natural gas corporation, Pertamina, amid Vietnam General Secretary H.E. To Lam to Indonesia in March 2025. FPT currently boasts 200 technology experts and two major offices in Indonesia, with a third one planned for opening this year.
About FPT
FPT Corporation (FPT) is a globally leading technology and IT services provider headquartered in Vietnam and operates in three core sectors: Technology, Telecommunications, and Education. Over more than three decades, FPT has consistently delivered impactful solutions to millions of individuals and tens of thousands of organizations worldwide. Committed to elevating Vietnam’s position on the global tech map and delivering world-class solutions for global enterprises, the Corporation focuses on five strategic areas: Artificial Intelligence, Automotive, Semiconductor, Digital Transformation, and Green Transformation. In 2024, FPT reported a total revenue of USD 2.47 billion and a workforce of over 54,000 employees across its core businesses. For information about FPT's global IT services, please visit https://fptsoftware.com/.
Mr Nguyen Van Khoa, FPT Corporation CEO (L) and Ms Teni Widuriyanti, Secretary for the Ministry of National Development Planning/Chief Secretary for Bappenas (R)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.
West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.
The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.
Decisions are expected by early summer.
President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.
Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.
“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”
She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.
Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.
She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.
Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.
“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.
Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.
The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.
About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.
"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”
But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.
“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”
Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”
“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.
One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.
Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”
The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.
The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.
The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.
The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.
If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.
“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.
Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)
