JAKARTA - Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Arif Satria revealed President of the Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto's commitment to increase national research funds to 50 percent of the current budget, which is around Rp. 8 trillion.
This was said by Arif Satria after the President's meeting with 1,200 professors, rectors, and deans
at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Thursday, January 15.
According to Arif, this increase in the budget is very crucial to catch up with Indonesia's research and support the target of economic growth of up to 8 percent.
"What is very encouraging today, the President is focused on increasing research funds," said Arif Satria.
Arif explained that Indonesia's research funds are currently equivalent to only 0.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This figure, he said, is far behind other countries.
"Therefore, the plan to increase the budget by about 50 percent is welcomed positively by researchers and academics," he said.
Arif said that this additional research funding would be directed to support national strategic programs, ranging from encouraging economic growth, reducing poverty, to creating jobs. In addition, said Arif, BRIN is also strengthening research to be able to support 18 strategic downstream projects.
"The downstream program needs research strength. BRIN is encouraging research strengthening to support 8 percent growth," he said.
BRIN, he added, is also preparing a future technology forecast, namely mapping future technologies until 2030, 2040, and 2050. Arif revealed that this step was taken so that Indonesia's industrialization would not be stuck on outdated technology when investments are realized.
"BRIN is ready to become a strategic partner of Danantara and the private sector in projecting the direction of future industrialization and technology, including through joint research," he said.
Regarding the focus of budget use, Arif said President Prabowo emphasized food security, ranging from rice, corn, garlic, soybeans, to animal proteins such as milk and cows. On the other hand, he said, resilience and energy transition research is also a priority to strengthen new and renewable energy.
"The next focus is on high-tech and labor-intensive strategic industries, such as textiles, shoes, electronics, to semiconductors. BRIN also encourages the acceleration of industrial research in aerospace, including the development of the N219 aircraft with PT Dirgantara Indonesia, which is targeted to complete its research by the end of 2026 or early 2027," concluded Arif.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
