Chairing KKIP Meeting, President Jokowi Requires Transfer of Technology in Every Purchase of Weapons
Chairing KKIP Meeting, President Jokowi Requires Transfer of Technology in Every Purchase of Weapons
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) together with Vice President Jusuf Kalla, in the Presidential Office Jakarta on Tuesday morning (30/12), chaired the cabinet meeting for the first time. This meeting was related to the Defense Industry Policy Committee (KKIP).
In his introductory remarks, President Jokowi stated the four main priorities in the defense policies.
The first priority is to guarantee the fulfillment of defense needs, including those related to the improvement of soldiers welfare and the provision of the primary weaponry defense system (alutsista).
The second priority, President Jokowi continued, is self-reliance in defense. We must build this self-reliance to avoid heavy dependence on imports, he stated.
The third priority, President Jokowi asserted, is that defense is not only a matter of fulfilling the Minimum Essential Force (MEF) but it must also be aimed at building Indonesian National Militarys (TNIs) power into a respected one.
The fourth priority is to place the state defense policies as integral parts of our comprehensive security approach.
President Jokowi explained that self-reliance in defense industry can be attained through several approaches implemented simultaneously.
The first approach, President Jokowi mentioned, is through transfer of technology. It requires that every purchase of weapons must be accompanied by transfer of technology, especially to strategic industries, like PT PAL, PT Pindad, and PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) (all those three are state-owned defense-equipment manufacturers).
The second approach is to re-arrange the weapons production cycle. The purchase of weapons must be closely interconnected with the weapons production cycle.
The third approach is related to the system integrity. According to President Jokowi, the provision of the primary weaponry defense system (alutsista) must be closely interconnected between all the military forces. President Jokowi gave an example by pointing out that the Armys tanks cannot operate in an integrated operation with the Air Forces jetfighters or the Navys warships if the system isnt well integrated. Thats what we must prevent from ever taking place, he asserted.
The self-reliance in defense industry, President Jokowi continued, must also be interconnected with the improvement of the state-owned enterprises management.
President Jokowi instructed that strategic state-owned defense industries must carry out total improvement, including improvement in their competitiveness, productivity, and production capacity (especially that of PT PAL, PT Pindad, and PT DI), so that we are capable of building partnership with other global-scale defense industries like those in South Korea, Western Europe, and North America.
For that reason, our strategic plans for the development of defense industry must be for long term. Such plans should not cover only one or two years but should cover long term, President Jokowi stated.
In order to make defense industry more efficient, according to President Jokowi, we must create civil-military double technology. It means that defense industry should cater not only for defense needs but also for non-defense needs. For example, components for Anoa Panzer produced by PT Pindad can also be used as the components for commercial trucks.
President Jokowi also mentioned that PT PAL should also produce ships which can also be used as commercial ships or fishing ships. Furthermore, the CN 295 planes produced by PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) should also be capable of serving as civil defense planes.
Seas as Home Yard
On that occasion, President Jokowi also reminded everyone that our seas are our home yard and our country is a maritime country in which there are thousands of islands. Therefore, he reminded everyone that the idea of spurring maritime development should not only be connected with sea tolls, harbors, or pioneer ships.
The most important is that we must be able to reform our maritime industry ourselves, including our shipyard industry, President Jokowi said and added that if we dont carry out the reform, foreign players will dominate and invade, while we only become observers.
The Defense Industry Policy Committee (KKIP) meeting was attended by a number of ministers and top state-officials, like Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs Indroyono Soesilo, Minister of Defense Ryamizard Ryacudu, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi, Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Rini Soemarno, Minister of Communications and Informatics Rudiantara, Minister of Finance Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan, Head of National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Andrinov Chaniago, Commander-in-Chief of Indonesian National Police (Polri) General Sutarman, and Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense Lieutenant General Ediwan Prabowo who serves as the Secretary of KKIP. (Humas Setkab/ES)
