Prabowo Calls for Education and Technology Minister to Minister of Agriculture Trenggono, What to Discuss?

President Prabowo Subianto summoned a number of ministers to the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Thursday afternoon to attend a limited meeting (ratas), including the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Brian Yuliarto and the Minister of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono.

Based on ANTARA's monitoring, Minister Brian arrived at the Presidential Palace at around 14.05 WIB. Then followed by Minister Trenggono and Head of the State-Owned Enterprise Regulatory Agency (BP BUMN) as well as Danantara Dony Oskaria COO.

Minister Brian admitted that he did not know the exact agenda for discussion in the meeting. However, he said that the meeting was likely to continue discussing the handling of micro-waste which had been discussed in the previous meeting which took place on Wednesday (11/2).

"I don't know yet, maybe it will be over, maybe it will continue with yesterday's micro-garbage," said Brian, revealing that there were seven officials who were called by the President to attend the meeting.

Regarding the involvement of universities, Brian said that no campus representatives had been invited to the ratas. However, he explained that the implementation of micro-scale waste processing technology in the campus environment is currently underway at a number of universities.

Several campuses that have implemented micro-scale waste processing technology include Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and Diponegoro University (Undip).

Meanwhile, the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) will only implement the technology.

"There may be 20 campuses that have been applied. This year we encourage them to make campus waste complete on campus. So maybe we hope that 100 campuses this year will make campus waste programs complete on campus," he said.

Previously, President Prabowo ordered Minister Brian to accelerate the use of micro-scale waste processing technology which has currently been developed by several campuses in Indonesia.

In a limited meeting chaired by President Prabowo at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Wednesday (11/2), Brian explained a number of micro-scale processing technologies to the President, considering the waste-to-energy processing program is one of the issues discussed during the meeting.

"The President gave instructions, in addition to waste-to-energy which will continue to run, several micro-scale waste processing technologies that have indeed been developed at several campuses, were asked by the President to be accelerated," said Brian Yuliarto when answering a reporter's question when he was met at the Palace, Jakarta, after the meeting.

Brian explained that the ministry would accelerate the development stages, including testing the technology made by several campuses so that micro-scale waste processing could be carried out immediately.

Brian targets that the trial can be carried out in several villages and villages this year.

Some of the waste processing technologies discussed include using the gasification method, then plasma-assisted, and cold plasma reactors.

The technology will be designed to process up to 10 tons of waste, given that the average waste generated at the village level reaches 10 tons per day.

If the micro-scale technology can be utilized, Brian hopes that in the future the mobilization of waste to landfills (TPA) will also be reduced, because household waste has been processed at the village/subdistrict level.

Brian then added that his ministry would also work with the Ministry of Environment to ensure that the technology used would not have a negative impact on the environment.