????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????
Badri Munir Sukoco
Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business
Universitas Airlangga
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, President Joko Widodo used the National Awakening Day to launch 55 medical devices from a consortium of Indonesian researchers. With the title “?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????," it is hoped that these products will speed up the handling of Covid-19 in the country We.
It is no coincidence that the 112th anniversary of National Awakening Day highlights the health sector. Apart from Indonesia's struggle to control the Covid-19 pandemic, the day of national awakening was determined in accordance with the birth of Boedi Oetomo, who is steeped in medicine. Initiated by dr. Wahidin Soedirohoesodo, chaired by Dr. Soetomo, and his management were dominated by students and alumni of STOVIA (Indigenous-Indonesian Medical Education School) in Batavia.
The President's hope is that Indonesian innovation will rise in line with the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet's focus on transforming the economy. Changing from dependence on natural resources to modern manufacturing and services that are competitive and have high added value. It is not surprising that cabinet meetings are held repeatedly to accelerate innovative and applicable research. Although initially somewhat skeptical, Covid-19 encouraged researchers to create innovative medical devices as they were rare and expensive on the global market.
As a first step to realizing national independence in the health sector (+90% of Indonesia imports raw materials for medicines and medical devices), of course the efforts of the researchers who are members of the above consortium should be appreciated. The next question is how to optimize existing research results to support Indonesia's independence in the health sector (and other strategic sectors)?
???????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????
Latest report ????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????? (WEF) places Indonesia #50 on ???????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????? ???????????????????????? (GCR) in 2019 (down 5 places compared to 2018). Of the 12 existing indicators, only the indicator ???????????????????????? ?????????????????? which is consistent and convincing rises to #7. The rest consistently fell, including the final indicator: innovation capability (#74 in 2019, #68 in 2018). Singapore ranks #13, followed by Malaysia (#30) and Thailand (#50). Consistent with the GCR, Indonesia's position is ???????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????? (GII) #85 (not moved from the previous year). Other ASEAN members have higher positions: Singapore (#8), Malaysia (#35), Vietnam (#42), Thailand (#43), the Philippines (#54), and Brunei Darussalam (#71).
Research funds allocated by the government amount to Rp. 27.1 trillion and spread across 81 ministries/institutions (K/L), the problem is that only 13 K/L carry out research, development and utilization activities. This amount is relatively small compared to neighboring countries, where Malaysia and Thailand allocate +1% of gross domestic income (GDP); while Indonesia in the last 20 years was only 0.1%. For developed countries, on average they allocate 2% to 4.5% of their GDP. This fact shows that the R&D budget to GDP is positively correlated with the nation's progress.
What's interesting is, budget allocation ????&???? In developed countries, not only the state, but also industry actively develops the results of basic research that has been funded by the state (especially by universities). According to GII 2019, some companies have ????&???? ????????????????????????????????????????????? very large. Four companies spent US$ 16 billion (Samsung, Alphabet, Volkswagen, and Microsoft), and Huawei spent US$ 14 billion (equivalent to Austria and slightly less than Israel).
???????????????????? ???????????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????????????????????
A recent study conducted by Arora et al. (2019) on ??????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? shows that United States (US) productivity growth has declined since the 1970s. In the long term, US competitiveness in innovation and its dominance in the world economy will decrease. This is quite surprising, considering the data ????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????? (NSF) shows investment in knowledge increased 5X, the number of doctorates (2X), and scientific publications (7X).
Interestingly, they argue that the lack of industry involvement in scientific research results in low application of existing discoveries. As an illustration, scientific publications produced by DuPont's R&D unit in ???????????????????????????? ???????? ????ℎ???? ????????????????????????????????? ????ℎ???????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? higher than that of MIT and Caltech combined in the 1960s. Even ???????????????? ?????????????????? owned by AT&T specializing in transistors and information theory produced 14 Nobel laureates and 5 laureates ???????????????????????? ?????????????????????.
A combination of shareholder pressure, high competition and failure to gain public trust has led many companies to withdraw from investing in science. If in 1985, 30% of R&D was funded by industry; then in 2015 it became only 20%. This is due to stagnation of allocated ???????????????????????????ℎ funds, even though at ???????????? ????????????????????????????????? growing steadily. As a result, scientific publications produced by industry in the US fell 20% per decade from 1980 to 2006. If in 1971 there were 41% of innovation winners who were companies included in ???????????????? ???????????? 500, in 2006 only 6% remained. It is not surprising that the report from ????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? (WIPO) shows a decline in US dominance in patents filed (as many as 5,401,401), less than China's 7,750,082 in the 2008-2017 period.
This condition shows the separation of roles between industry and higher education (PT), where??????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????? carried out by industry and ???????????????????????????ℎ by PT. As a result, research produced by PT is less applicable due to limited scale and scope, whereas ????????????????????????ℎ???????? ???????ℎ ??????????????????????????????????????? those offered by the industry are decreasing. And of course there are differences in motives between the research produced, where researchers at HEIs get incentives at ????ℎ???? ????????????????????? ?????????????????????, while research in industry on its use (???????????????? ?????? ?? ???????????????). One of the solutions offered is to facilitate ??????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????? ?????????????????????????????? (SET) to work more closely with industry, as is done by ???????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????? in ????????????????????????????????? ???????????? or ???????????????????????? on ???????????????????????????? ????????????ℎ which provides ???????????????????????????ℎ?????? ?????? for scientists to transition discoveries (???????????????????????????ℎ) to applications (???????????? ?????????????????????????????????).
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The health sector is very strategic for Indonesia and other countries whose economic growth is increasingly dominated by the service sector. Sector ℎ???????????????ℎ ???????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????? in the United States absorbs 12.40% (2018) with health expenditure reaching 17.90% (2017) of ???????????????????? ????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????. This is what makes investment in the health and biotechnology sectors grow and develop, and one of the potential markets targeted is Indonesia. Likewise, other developed countries have made health their strategic sector.
On several occasions, the President emphasized the need to downstream research and innovation produced by PT. This hope tends to be difficult to achieve because ???????????? that exists between research produced by HEIs and industry, and this begins with differences in the motives for the research carried out. The description above shows the importance of the role of ????&???? carried out by industry for the long-term competitiveness and independence of the nation, by duplicating the SET program. Indirectly, Indonesian researchers in the last 3 months have carried out SET to answer the nation's problems related to Covid-19.
For the government, attractive incentives need to be provided so that industry in Indonesia is interested in allocating ????&???? ????????????????????????, for example acceleration ???????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????? for industries that conduct research and other incentives that can be provided. For HEIs, it is imperative to allocate research topics that have high relevance to industry needs so that they can be utilized optimally. Apart from that, facilitating and appreciating researchers to actively collaborate with industry in applying the results of their research in the SET program is a crucial step.
We hope that the economic transformation initiated by the rise of innovation in the health sector can be followed by other strategic sectors; so that Indonesia can escape ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????, the vision promised by the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet. (bms)
Source: Opinion, Jawa Pos, 11 June 2020
