RI Collaborates With South Korea To Build Smart Factory To Boost Competitiveness Of Manufacturing Products

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) is pushing for industrial acceleration 4.0 in the manufacturing sector to boost productivity and be globally competitive. However, cross-sectoral, both national and international cooperation is needed.

Bearing in mind, the manufacturing sector has a big challenge, namely infrastructure readiness, human resource development (HR) to digital inequality.

"Collaboration between the government, the private sector and educational institutions is needed to ensure that Indonesia can compete globally in this digital era," said Head of the Ministry of Industry's Standardization and Industrial Services Policy Agency (BSKJI) Andi Rizaldi in an official statement quoted on Monday, January 27.

In order to answer these challenges, the Ministry of Industry has established bilateral cooperation with the South Korean government (South Korea) represented by the International Economic Affairs Bureau Ministry of Economic and Finance (MOEF) regarding the digitization of the manufacturing industry in Indonesia.

This bilateral cooperation network was confirmed through the signing of the Memorandum of Arrangement (MoA) on January 22, 2025. The signing of the MoA was carried out by the Head of the Center for Optimization of the Utilization of Industrial Technology and Industrial Services Policy (POPTIKJI) Priyadi Arie Nugroho.

Priyadi said that her belief in the application of the smart factory concept will increase production efficiency and productivity, reduce operational costs and increase the competitiveness of Indonesian manufacturing products in the global market.

"With South Korea's experience of first successfully developing a smart factory ecosystem, we are optimistic that this collaboration will be an inspiration, valuable guide and the first step to making a big leap for Indonesia's manufacturing industry in its transformation," he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of Trade Policy Coordination Division, representative of MOEF, Choi Dong Il supports the cooperation initiative that has been chosen by the Ministry of Industry for 2025, namely the development of smart factory guidelines in supporting the digitization of the manufacturing industry in Indonesia.

This project is expected to increase the competitiveness of Indonesia's manufacturing sector as well as encourage collaboration between South Korean and Indonesian companies in creating opportunities to partner in the global market.

"We hope that more good projects like this will be found in the future and economic cooperation projects related to trade will continue to provide opportunities for new breathing in trade relations between Korea and Indonesia," he said.

In addition, the Director of International Industrial Access (AII) of the Directorate General of Regional Resilience and International Industrial Access (KPAII) of the Ministry of Industry, Dewi Muliana, said that this bilateral cooperation is a form of active participation.

According to him, the purpose of cooperation is to increase industrial competitiveness, exports, domestic investment and participation in the global supply chain.

"The collaboration with South Korea, which is explored through the submission of the proposal of The Digitalization of The Manufacturing Industry in Indonesia by POPTIKJI, is expected to accelerate digital transformation in the manufacturing industry sector of Indonesia through the preparation of guidelines for smart factors. So, it can increase productivity and efficiency in the manufacturing industry sector in Indonesia," he concluded.