Demographic Bonus, Jokowi Asks Higher Education Whose Superior Human Resources Are 10 Years In The Future

President Joko Widodo when opening the XXIX Campus Convention and XXV Annual Meeting of the Indonesian Chancellor's Forum at the Surabaya State University, Monday (15/1/2024) (ANTARA)

SURABAYA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) asked universities to prepare superior Human Resources (HR) to welcome demographic bonuses in the next 10 years.

"The superior human resources will be the key and that is what we have to prepare in real and concrete ways. This is what we have to prepare because in the next five years, 10 years, we will get a demographic bonus," said President Jokowi when opening the XXIX Campus Convention and XXV Annual Meeting of the Indonesian Chancellor's Forum at the State University of Surabaya, East Java, quoted by ANTARA Monday, January 15.

According to the President, natural resources are abundant but not enough to make Indonesia a developed country. The most important thing, he said, was quality human resources.

"Secondly, we need science (science and technology) and quality innovation. Both are important tasks of our educational institutions. The duties of the chancellors and lecturers," said President Jokowi.

President Jokowi said that during a visit to the United States and going to two universities in Washington DC and San Francisco, he was surprised because more than half of his students came from China.

"I then thought, this is what caused China to jump forward in the last 20 years and surpass developed countries. Second India. I'm looking for students from Indonesia, it turns out that there are five, very small," said President Jokowi.

Meanwhile, when he went to Vietnam, President Jokowi received information that there was one private company, Research and Development (R&D) had 2,400 researchers.

This, according to him, shows how much Vietnam is. they really appreciate research. Meanwhile in China, there is one company that has 24,000 R&D personnel.

"Vietnam income per capita is approximately 4,200 US dollars. We are now 5,100 US dollars, even though Vietnam has just finished war. This means that we have been going on for 30 years. But they are speeding. And be careful, the income per capita exceeds us. If we are monotonous and relaxed, we can get out of Vietnam, this is what we don't want," said President Jokowi.

He explained that universities have a strategic role to play in creating superior and quality human resources and not only master science, but also those who want to learn. In addition, human resources are strong physically, mentally, and morally.

"HR is innovative and produces quality works. On the other hand, universities are tasked with becoming research institutions. Because they have a very large number of lecturers, researchers and tens of thousands of students for the development of science and technology. The key is here," said President Jokowi.