This policy advice advocates for Indonesia to assert itself as a regional leader in science and technology by implementing specific policies and programmes. The policies and programmes are coherent with UNESCO’s Open Science framework, which incentivizes Indonesia to make all of its publicly funded scientific research open access, to invest in a robust and ubiquitous digital infrastructure, and to establish a centralized online repository and publishing system for scientific research. Using the 2023 ASEAN Presidency to announce its position on Open Science and international science cooperation, Indonesia would trigger a political gravity for regional and international science communities, making it an attractive country for highly talented scientists and researchers while creating a basis for the Indonesian population writ large to participate in scientific knowledge production.