Monday, April 23, 2012

Indonesian Minister for Research and Technology Opens GIST Business Bootcamp 2012

Jakarta, 18th of April 2012
 

Assalamualaikum Warrohmatullahi Wabarrakatuh. Good morning and God bless for us all,


His Excellency US Ambassador to Indonesia;

Honorable Mr. Simon G. Bell, Partner, The Apex Consulting Group;

Honorable Mrs. Natalia Pipia, Senior Program Manager, CRDF Global;

Honorable Mr. Ovidiu Bujorean, Innovation Program Manager, GIST Initiative;

Honorable Mr. Kristanto Santosa, Executive Director, Business Innovation Center;

Honorable Mentors and participants of ”Startup Enterpreneurship Bootcamp”

Distingueshed guests, Ladies and gentlement,


First of all, let us raise our thanks to our God Almighty for blessing us this morning, so we can work and fill our day today with an activity, which hopefully could bring benefit to all of us.

Talking about entrepreneurship, we cannot disconnect it to the word of innovation. In this occasion, I would like to convey about the importance of innovation, because we are now living in the 20th century, which is remarked by superiority. And the key to achieve it is innovation. Our President himself has been expressing the importance of innovation at many occasions: “To become a nation mastering in science and technology, we have to enable ourselves to place innovation as the artery of our nation, Indonesia. We must become an Innovation-Nation: a home for creative and innovative mankind.

Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen,

In relation to the innovation based on national R&D utilization, many success stories have shown that technically we have sufficient capacity to generate innovative products, which benefit our society. These innovative products which have been developed by some research institutes in collaboration with local government, both provincial level as well as regency/city.

 Let us take an example on ICT: the utilization of Open Source Software (OSS) in Pekalongan could save local expenses up to Rp. 14 billion a year; in Aceh-Tengah, it could also save local expenses up to 1.5 billion a year; in Jembrana, the OSS has been connected to all schools through Jimbarwana networking. Moreover, BPPT has invented an interpreting technology: It’s kind of software, which enables user to understand or to translate human speech into script.

 On agriculture-animal husbandry: LIPI has applied technology of IB Sexing, which enables us to determine the gender of calf; LIPI has also applied technology to produce animal feed to ensure feed-availability all year long; Batan has applied prime-rice seeds through radiation (mutation) technology.

On new and renewable technology: the application of hybrid technology of solar and wind energy is now well utilized by local society to produce ice cubes, to water the sanded-agriculture, to light the district and to become tourism icon in Bantul; as well as the utilization of liquid-waste of tofu-industry using “fixed bed reactor” model to produce biogas for local community.

On creative economy: by utilizing OSS for animation industry with original content from Indonesia; and also a development of rubber-based souvenir in South Sumatera.

 Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen,

We all realize that it is not easy to push research results (invention) to be adopted by industry and to benefit our society. Commitments and supports from all actors of innovation and the society itself are highly needed. Technology itself will benefit us in order to enhance of our welfare and to advance our civilization, as long as those elements are built in a harmonize system among them. This is what we call as Innovation System.
 
Therefore, the Ministry of Research and Technology has set the National Innovation System Reinforcement as its prior program. Thus, the Ministry of Research and Technology develops programs and infrastructures to enabling communication, interaction and synergy among innovation-actor. Some of those programs are Puspiptek-Revitalization to serve as S&T Park; Development of S&T Center of Excellent, Research Consortium, Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, Technology Intermediary, and Incentive for National Innovation System as well as PKPP which is directed to support the implementation of MP3EI and Technopreneurship.

BIC has been actively doing intermediary on technology and has published 100, 101, 102 and 103 Book of Innovation. Today they are about to publish the Book of 104 Indonesian Innovation in order to support disseminating our R&D results. The book series, which include necessary information about the Indonesian R&D results, can be also utilized as a tool to grow new technological-based entrepreneurship in Indonesia.

Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen,

Entrepreneurship competence of a nation is very much determining the welfare-level of its people. Experiences from other nations have shown that well-established entrepreneurship ecosystem is the motor of their economic development. According to David McClelland, a prosperous nation shall have 2% at minimum on the entrepreneurial number. The US has in 2007 11,5% entrepreneurs; Singapore has in 2005 7,2% entrepreneurs; and Indonesia has in 2007 approximately 0,18% entrepreneurs only or about 400.000, which actually should be 4.4 million entrepreneurs. Since we are a nation with large population and rich in natural resources, there is no other way for us except to stimulate our human resource to hold competences to doing business in order to escalate the prosperity and the independent of our nation, Indonesia.

Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlement,

It is not easy to build a spirit on entrepreneurship because character building is the output of education and culture, which have been absorbed from its environment, both from the formal education as well as from family education and its surroundings.

Thus, the awareness from all parties is required, both from formal education institution and from the family itself, in order to create and to provide conducive environment for the growing and for the creation of entrepreneurship character.

 An entrepreneur must have dreams, namely future mission and its competence to achieve its mission; determination is total commitment and never give up; calculated risk taker, which is able to calculate the risk taken; resource organizer, which is able to manage resources; innovator which is able to create and to generate new method or new product; and high achiever, which is determining target and high dreams.

In addition of having entrepreneur character, an entrepreneur must be able to observe and to answer the challenges faced. It is because the challenges are getting bigger along with the global economic development nowadays. Those challenges are coming from internal and external of an entrepreneur itself.

Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlement,

To build entrepreneurship-competence cannot be done instantly or by accident. It requires continuous effort and supporting system/environment for entrepreneurship development. Nevertheless, to build entrepreneurship as an ecosystem cannot be undertaken by copying other nations only. But, we have to enable ourselves to design the entrepreneurship ecosystem in our environment based on the characteristic of our social-culture.

Therefore, the Ministry of Research and Technology appreciates and highly supports GIST program for developing countries, particularly for Indonesia, which is initiated by the US President, Barack Obama. And I also fully support the “Start Up Entrepreneurship Boot Camp” for the next two days.

 Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen,

During the “Leadership Forum” GIST Boot Camp Program , I have heard that the key essence of the analyses and the sharing of honorable Dr. Joseph Hadzima from the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was about: how the MIT could become a world model as innovation motor and its contribution to make the United States being superpower and developed country. It is also pictured in his presentation that human factor, the soul, and the spirit of entrepreneurship are key factors behind the success stories of technology based innovation development.

 rom this understanding, I am sure that once we are talking about “innovation”, we actually have deal with two sides of the same coin: science and technology which support innovation creation to be happened and entrepreneurship soul to make the valued added happened.

 In order to build entrepreneurship, we need infrastructure in one entrepreneur-ecosystem, such as (1) continuous training, (2) entrepreneurship community development, (3) to give incentive and award to entrepreneur, (4) pilot project to create conducive environment for entrepreneurship, (5) networking, it is the key determinant for a success of an entrepreneur in globalization era.

Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen,

Since 2011, the Ministry of Research and Technology has started an activity to push creativity and innovation for youth, in order to create newcomer technology-based entrepreneurs. In 2012, Kemenristek holds Technopreneurship-Competition for Youth. This activity is supposed to grow the interest of youth of being technopreneur through their creativity and innovation as well as through utilization of S&T, which has economic value to be further developed to an innovative product.

This competition is hold national wide to support the implementation of MP3EI in 6 (six) economic corridors. The selected youth will participate at boot camp technopreneurship for 14 (fourteen) days long in Puspiptek – Serpong. Through this boot camp, they may do networking to the Global Entrepreneurship Program Indonesia (GEPI), do networking to investor and to get incentive to develop their ideas into innovation product.

 Here are some technopreneur, who received assistance and incentive from the Ministry of Research and Technology in 2011: (1) LABAN ELECTRIC, it is milk pasteurization device using Pulsed Electric Field, who is now participating in GIST-Global Competition and one of contestant from Indonesia who is being the finalist at GLOBAL GIST in Dubai. (2) GREEN FLAME, Spiritus Gel as Practical Fuel Solution as prospective business and the winner of Mandiri Young Technopreneur. (3) GeMATOP (Get Maling Laptop), an application to display the thief-face. (4) Clam-seed-production through Collector Spat Application using coconut-shell as raw material; this is actually an environmental-friendly technology to enlarge the seed pearls, so the production and the quality of pearls may be increased.

 Distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen,

Those examples show us that the creativity among our young generation is quite good and prospective. If this culture can be further developed and maintained from campuses from now on, I am sure, we can reduce unemployment, and we can increase job creation for Indonesian society.

Finally, I congratulate you all, who are selected to be the participants of this Boot Camp. My message for you is, please use this program as maximum as you can: dig and absorb all the knowledge from our mentors, their skills, as well as their experiences, which they may share to you in the two days ahead.

To BIC and Universitas Ciputra Enterpreneurship Center (UCEC) as partner, I give you my appreciation and thank you for your hard works, to make this Boot Camp happen.

And to our distinguished guests from CRDF Global, Guest Mentors, organizer and all contributor to this Global Innovation through Science & Technology Indonesia (GIZT), and surely to the US Government as initiator to this program; I personally and on behalf of the Ministry of Research and Technology Republic of Indonesia, may I appreciate you all and thank you very much.

 May all cooperation, hard work and your good desire, you bring with you to Indonesia, may give positive results in return; which is closed cooperation between two countries and two nations, Indonesia and the US, in order to continuously build innovation, achieve advancement and to bring peace to the entire world through science and technology, as well as to build competition and an unlimited entrepreneurship spirit.

 Thank you very much.

Wassalamu’alaikum Wr.Wb


Menteri Negara Riset dan Teknologi
Gusti Muhammad Hatta


To find out more about the Indonesia Green Innovation Pilot Program visit: www.greeninnovation.or.id or contact The Apex Consulting Group.




No comments: