You are cordially invited a special seminar by Dr. Lukman Hakim. The details are as follows.

Date and Time: April 4th, 2016 16:00 – 18:00
Place: Middle-sized meeting room, Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, Kyoto University

Speaker: Dr. Lukman Hakim, Professor, ex-Head of Indonesian Institute of Science LIPI ＆ CSEAS Visiting Research Scholar

Title: Indonesian Science, Technology and Innovation Development under the New Jokowi Administration

Abstract:
The Indonesian current economic trend is showing a positive sign. The average recent GDP growth rate is around 6% and the GDP per capita is almost reaching USD 4,000. Now Indonesian is considered as the 10th largest economic power (World Bank 2014). However, the Indonesian economic growth is mostly based on natural resources exploitation, trade and consumption. The contribution of science and innovation is not significant. It is the reason why Indonesia is still just ranked 37th in the global competitiveness index by World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2015/2016. Many people in Indonesia are wondering if the current economic growth will continue or not with this economic development pattern that has no sustainable and long-term perspective with the limited national budget for the R&D.

The investment in the R&D has risen quantitatively, but its GDP share is shrinking. The ratios of researchers in the labor force and populations are lower than those of other ASEAN countries. The number of academic publications has increased but a few universities and research centers are dominant in the publications. There are several research funds but they are limited. Most of them are from the government, not from the private sector.

The Indonesian government has initiated the institutional reform by setting a number of universities and R&D agencies and also by regrouping and repositioning them. Unfortunately, this reform has not widened the competent civil society participation for the R&D yet. The Indonesian government should also make a clear commitment to involve the private
sector in the field of R&D by giving direct incentives (e.g. in terms of tax and fiscal policy).

The good news is that the revised constitution allocated more budget for the education sector and the new Jokowi cabinet merged the higher education and research and technology sectors. This change means that the government realized the importance of the R&D. The question is whether the government can really concretize this will and also give some new policies to encourage the private sector to invest more in the R&D sector. If it takes place, the sustainable development could be achievable in Indonesia in a longer-term.

Moderator: Masaaki OKAMOTO, CSEAS, Kyoto University