Optimizing The Potential Of The Digital Economy, Airlangga Encourages The Development Of Human Resources Competency

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto. (doc. Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs)

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said the government needed quality education centers, especially in the field of innovation and technology to support Indonesia's plan to become a developed country in 2045.

"So when we talk about the digital economy, we need to have human resources [Human Resources]," said Airlangga in his statement, Sunday, August 4.

Airlangga explained that the government continues to strive to maintain the consistency of the national economy by optimizing various growth machines, one of which is downstreaming. However, this must be supported by the creation of human resources that are literate to digitalize in line with the rapid development of technology.

Therefore, Airlangga views the need for quality education centers, especially in the fields of innovation and technology, one of which is through Tsinghua University.

By paying attention to this urgency, Airlangga said that there was a need to increase the quota for learning opportunities at Tsinghua University for Indonesian students, which currently only has 50 students.

According to Airlangga, this requires that the program run more inclusively, especially considering the large population of Indonesia and there is a projection of a demographic bonus in the next few years that needs to be optimized.

"Therefore, we need more students to be given the opportunity to study at Tsinghua, especially in geopolitical conditions and current negative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI challenges," said Airlangga.

Furthermore, related to this digitization, Airlangga also said that currently there is a need for digital commodities such as semiconductors. In order to meet these needs, it is necessary for competent human resources to design microchips so that they can encourage the ability of semiconductor human resources.

Meanwhile, Indonesia itself is the basis for electric vehicles, fuel cells, batteries, and in the future will be encouraged to optimize semiconductor potential. For this reason, the availability of human resources and exchange centers for learning is expected to increase capacity in this field.

"We need human resources. Therefore, we hope for Tsinghua's support to develop it and allow students from Indonesia to study at Tsinghua, or vice versa training for coaches. Not for short courses, but for certain times at universities. So I think that's the next thing I want to do," said Airlangga.

Airlangga also expressed hope to be able to seek China as Indonesia's partner for commodities and other strategic sectors such as oil, as well as technology support, AI, climate change, carbon capture and storage, to mitigate dependence on energy imports and fossil fuels.