Coordinating Minister Airlangga Calls Technology Development Key To National Health Industry Independence

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that the health industry, including the pharmaceutical industry, is one of the sectors that is highly prioritized, especially in the current pandemic conditions.

According to him, the government will continue to encourage digital-based transformation to support the development of the health industry.

"This transformation is expected to play a more important role in facilitating the distribution process, strengthening health networks, streamlining administrative processes, and supporting more effective and efficient performance," he said in an official statement quoted on Friday, January 21.

Airlangga added, based on data from the Ministry of Health, until 2021, Indonesia has 241 pharmaceutical manufacturing industries, 17 pharmaceutical raw material industries, 132 traditional health industries, and 18 natural extraction product industries.

He revealed that these various industries have exported pharmaceutical products and medical devices to various countries in the world, including the United States, Britain, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Singapore, and South Korea.

"In supporting efforts to develop the health industry, the government has prepared a Road Map with the aim of increasing the production of high-tech raw materials," he said.

Furthermore, the government is also said to have encouraged the emergence of research and innovation through Productive Innovative Research Funding managed by LPDP for academics, as well as providing Super Deduction Tax incentives for technopreneurs who carry out R&D activities. Airlangga claims that these various policies can be used so that the national industrial sector can produce innovations created by Industrial Engineering engineers.

"The long-term goal of this effort is to achieve the independence of the health industry so that it is able to meet domestic needs and reduce dependence on imported materials," he said.

To note, the national economic recovery is inseparable from the recovery that occurred in the industrial sector, because this sector supports 19.15 percent of the national economy. Optimism in the industrial sector was still visible in the fourth quarter of 2021, which was marked by the Manufacturing PMI again in expansionary territory, recording 53.5 in December 2021.

The utilization of the processing industry also continued to increase and reached the highest at 67.6 percent. imports of capital goods and raw materials grew 23.1 percent and 60.5 percent year-on-year (yoy) in November 2021. All indicators reflect that this industrial sector is increasingly solid in supporting the national economic recovery.