VP Ma’ruf Amin: Gov’t Continues to Improve Quality of Indonesia’s Human Resources

In a bid to make progress and bring prosperity amid changes in technology, the Government has announced it continues to make efforts to improve the quality of human resources to keep up with the rapid development.

“The Government is highly aware of the importance of technology-based development. Therefore, we are mobilizing all resources, policies, and budgets and carrying out development so that the quality of our human resources will continue to be improved,” Vice President Ma’ruf Amin said in his remarks at the 2022 Indonesia Economic Outlook, Monday (02/07).

The Vice President also underscored that the Government will continue to redouble the efforts that have been made.

“Skills improvement is driven through the Pre-Employment Card and the Community Vocational Training Center (BLK), research endowment fund, increase in student scholarship funds both at home and abroad, student exchanges, as well as digital facilities management such as optical fiber construction, and many more,” Ma’ruf said.

The Vice President also highlighted lack of research staff, especially in educational and research institutions that serve as economic anchors who will lead and push for the direction of economic development.

“Data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) for the 2016-2018 period shows that the number of researchers in Indonesia is still lower than that in other countries. The number of full-time researchers in Indonesia relative to one million population is only 216 in 2018, while China and Russia, they have 1,307 and 2,784 researchers per one million population respectively in 2018,” he explained.

According to him, the condition has served as the reason why the number of patents in Indonesia is considered low.

“In 2020, the number of patents in Indonesia stood at 1,309, while, in the same year, the number of patent applications in Brazil reached 5,280, 23,141 in India, 269,586 in the United States, and 1,344,817 in China based on the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2021,” he said.

Ma’ruf added that interventions related to gross domestic product are essential for research and development, considering that innovation has not become a daily practice in many fields of life.

“We must push for an increase in gross domestic expenditure for research and development/R&D (GERD) as a percentage of the low GDP. Based on data from the UIS in 2018, Indonesia’s GERD only reached 0.23 percent in 2018,” he stated.

In the event with the theme “Seizing the Opportunity: Transforming Indonesia’s Economy Amidst the Crisis”, the Vice President also addressed several things to students from University of Indonesia as participants in attendance.

First, college students must master science and technology well so that the nation can become a nation of creators instead of being a follower.

Second, innovation is the best opportunity to mitigate changes.

“Do use science and technology that you have mastered to create endless innovations,” he said.

Third, college students must equip themselves with entrepreneurial capacities.

“Entrepreneurship will be a medium of innovation to create products and job opportunities. That is the main fuel for welfare,” he said.

At the end of his remarks, the Vice President also urged college students as the future of the nation to master science and technology and to have good morals.

“Do not forget to always equip yourself with noble characters (akhlakul karimah) so that your knowledge becomes a source of blessing,” he remarked.

Previously, Dean of UI’s Faculty of Economics and Business Teguh Dartanto said that 2022 remains full of economic uncertainty due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation in major countries; yet, he said it must be handled with optimism by trying to revive the national economy.