In Terms Of The Number Of Researchers, Indonesia Is Indeed Very Far Behind From The G20 Countries

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JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin regrets that the number of Indonesian researchers is still very low compared to other countries with the number of full-time equivalent researchers only 216 people per 1.000.000 population in 2018.

"The data shows that the number of researchers in Indonesia is still very low compared to other countries. Indonesia is far behind tens of times compared to the availability of researchers in Japan and South Korea in 2018," said the Vice President at the Indonesia Economic Outlook 2022 National Seminar via video conference from Jakarta, Monday, February 7.

Based on data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) 2016-2018, the number of researchers in Japan was 5.331 people and in South Korea, it was 7.980 people. Meanwhile, in China and Russia, the Vice President continued, the number of researchers was 1.307 people and 2.784 people per 1.000.000 population.

"Similarly, the availability of scientists and engineers, which is known from the percentage of higher education graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem), in Indonesia is also still low," he said as quoted by Antara.

The percentage of Stem graduates in Indonesia was recorded in 2016 as 18.62 percent, in 2017 as much as 18.55 percent and in 2018 increased slightly to 19.42 percent.

"This situation is relatively low compared to G20 member countries, such as India and Russia, which in 2018 were 32.65 percent and 31.06 percent respectively," he explained.

With the condition of the very low number of researchers, the number of patents in Indonesia is also still small. The vice president said that the number of patents in Indonesia in 2020 had only reached 1.309 patent applications, far less than Brazil (5.280), India (23.141), the United States (269.586), and China (1.344.817).

"The implication of these factors is that innovation has not become a daily practice in many fields of life, especially in the economic field," he said.

Referring to the 2021 Global Innovation Index (GII) report, released by The World Intellectual Property Organization (WPO), the Vice President said Indonesia was ranked in the bottom four as an innovative country in Southeast Asia.

"Indonesia's global innovation index ranking is below Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brunei Darussalam. Even though the popular slogan today is 'innovation or death'," said the vice president.