Erick Thohir Reveals A Shocking Thing: In 10 Years Indonesia Could Lose To Rwanda, The Solution Is Not To Use China Or America's Roadmap

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Mary Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir asked all directors of SOEs in the field of food to be open to innovation and digital technology. Because, if not, then in 10 years Indonesia could be left behind with a country in East Africa, Rwanda.

"This is no less important, please be open with innovation and technology. If you don't do that, don't be surprised that in 10 years Indonesia will lose to Rwanda," he said at the inauguration ceremony of the Food SOE Holding, in Jakarta, Wednesday, January 12.

Therefore, Erick cautioned that 10 years is not a long time to make a transformation. Erick asked the Food SOEs to accelerate innovation and technology development in the food sector.

"They made big changes in Rwanda for agriculture, 10 years is not long with technological innovation with innovation as well as RNI. That's why I knock on the hearts of the ladies and gentlemen who are present with all humility, don't look at the differences, look for similarities so that our ecosystem wins, it's not our ecosystem that loses," he explained.

Erick emphasized that from the beginning his party emphasized that Indonesia must have its own ecosystem and roadmap. Thus, the Indonesian market or large market, is not used for the growth of other countries.

"Not China's roadmap, not America's roadmap. Our country is different from other countries, if we don't improve our ecosystem, our roadmap, our market will certainly be defeated by the ecosystems of other countries who see Indonesia only as a market and good natural resources," he said.

Furthermore, Erick doesn't want the incident from decades to repeat itself, how the VOC triumphed in Indonesia, where the Netherlands was rich, and Indonesia remained poor for 350 years.

"Let's think about it together, do we still want sectoral egos that don't provide solutions to our country and people? Or the choice is only one, we open our hearts, we work together to build the Indonesian ecosystem," he said.