Indef: There Are Three Indicators That The Government Needs To Do If It Wants Indonesian-style Silicon Valley To Be Successful

JAKARTA - The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) provides several notes that the government must pay attention to before building an Indonesian-style Silicon Valley called Algorithm Hill in Sukabumi. Especially if you want to be similar to Silicon Valley in California, United States.

Indef Program Director Esther Sri Astuti said Indonesian-style Silicon Valley must have several indicators if it is to be successful. He said, this indicator needs to be built to make Algorithm Hill a special economic area (KEK) that is able to attract investors.

"The indicators are whether Silicon Valley or Algorithm Hill is successful or not? If a special area can attract strong brands, other industries will definitely follow it, the first is an indicator of success," he said in a virtual discussion, Thursday, April 15 .

According to Esther, to realize the opportunities for the High Tech Zone as a SEZ capable of boosting the economy, it is necessary to have an ecological structure and platform power that supports collaboration between industry, universities and research.

"The special economic zone area can drive up productivity. One of them is a collaboration like the one I saw in Penang. There is a collaboration between industry, government and universities. They have established a training center," he said.

Furthermore, Esther said the second indicator is that the special economic zone must be able to absorb more employment opportunities from Indonesia. However, the quality of the workforce owned must match the industry there. Thus, it is necessary to invest in education, training and skills development.

Finally, Silicon Valley can be said to be successful when the special economic zone has a greater contribution to gross domestic product (GDP). This point is a basic indicator of the successful performance of the Algorithm Hill in the future.

"The point is that if technology, then capital and labor can drive economic growth, it can be said that in general the special economic zone, especially in industrial areas that use hi-tech, can be successful," he said.

Esther said that if all of these indicators could be implemented, the construction of Silicon Valley in Sukabumi Indonesia would have a positive impact on the Indonesian economy.

For your information, Silicon Valley is the name for the area in the Santa Clara Valley which is in the south of the Bay Area, San Francisco, California, United States (US). Home to many of the world's giant technology companies.

Seeing the success of Silicon Valley, not a few countries in the world are competing to duplicate this technology center. One of them is in the city of Shenzen, Beijing, China which is known as the headquarters of Huawei and Xiaomi.

In Indonesia itself, a duplicate of Silicon Valley did emerge. Some of the locations that had been predicted to become Indonesia's Silicon Valley include Malang, Yogyakarta, BSD Serpong, and Batam.

Most recently, the Sukabumi Algorithm Hill appeared, which was developed by a state-owned construction company, PT Amarta Karya (Persero). Silicon Valley Indonesia or Algorithm Hill itself will be managed by Kiniku Bintang Raya KSO and PT Bintang Raya Lokalestari.

This Indonesian-style Silicon Valley development is estimated to cost up to 1 billion Euros or equivalent to IDR 18 trillion.

"This area will be one of the centers for the development of advanced innovation and technology, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, to solar panels for clean and environmentally friendly energy," said the President Director of PT Amarta Karya (Persero). , Nikolas the Great.

888 hectares of land in Cikidang and Cibadak, Sukabumi were chosen as the location for Algorithm Hill. The initial development stage is estimated to take three years.

Algorithm Hill is expected to become a center for research and technology development, as well as a center for human resource development in the future. In particular the development of technology and industry 4.0.