JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin stressed that the education and research budget must be increased in order to make Indonesia a competitive country, as well as improve the ranking of innovation globally.
This was stated by Ma'ruf during his remarks at the inauguration of the Food Research Facility at the BRIN Food Technology and Process Research Center (PRTPP), as the Indonesian Halal Research Reference Laboratory, in Playen, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta, Friday, April 22.
"The budget for education and research must be increased, the quantity and quality of researchers must be increased, and infrastructure and research facilities must be increased," said Ma'ruf as quoted by Antara.
Ma'ruf said the most competitive countries in the world are countries that invest in research and development to generate innovation. According to him, it is not surprising that the share of Gross Domestic Product allocated for research and increasing the number of researchers globally is increasing.
Ma'ruf said that according to the UNESCO Statistics Agency, global spending on research and development reached US$1.7 trillion, which is the highest figure in history.
"Currently, the budget we have allocated for research and development has not even reached 1 percent of our GDP," explained the Vice President.
In comparison, said Ma'ruf , South Korea, one of the leading countries in the field of innovation, spends 4.1 percent of GDP on research and development. He said that if South Korea has around 6,800 researchers per one million population, Indonesia only has 89 researchers per one million population.
Meanwhile, in the 2021 Global Innovation rankings, Indonesia is in 14th place in Southeast Asia and East Asia, and 87th in the world, or down two places from 2020.
According to Ma'ruf, the decline in Indonesia's innovation ranking at the global level also sends a message that Indonesia must immediately take action to improve this aspect.
Ma'ruf emphasized that research and development is the lifeblood that determines business continuity, because it will help create products and services according to the development of community needs, as well as new methods or processes that are more efficient.
Research and innovation underlie business growth and job creation, which will drive the country's economic growth.
Ma'ruf emphasized that the presence of BRIN's Halal Research Facilities and International Standard Laboratories gave hope to Indonesia that BRIN, together with other stakeholders, would continue to advance research and innovation in Indonesia.
"In addition, what is no less important is how to ensure the benefits and suitability of research results with industrial needs, so that the research produced can answer the needs of the industry, as well as be developed on an industrial scale," he explained.
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