[Unpad.ac.id, 14/03/2016] Rector of Bandung Institute of Technology, Prof. Dr. Ir. Kadarsah Suryadi, DEA., said that Indonesian industry is more business oriented. In other words, there were not many industries that conduct research & development making its production independent, becaues of Indonesia industry heavy reliance on foreign investment.
“The industry buys more components from abroad, then assembled and sold domestically,” said Prof. Kadarsah during the public lecture “Asian Community Lectures”, on Friday (11/03) afternoon in Bale Sawala Rector Building Campus Jatinangor. The public lecture was held in cooperation with One Foundation Tokyo and Universitas Padjadjaran, with participation by Unpad students.
Prof. Kadarsah considered local industry with independent production would be having difficulty to compete with the assembly industry. He believed that foreign investment for the manufacturing industry in Indonesia was quite high. Many foreign companies have been investing in Indonesia with a complete industry ecosystem capacity.
“A independent company competitors with a very small network would be defeated by larger companies who have extensive connections,” said this professor of the Industrial Engineering.
The global competition among ASEAN countries and other regional demanded Indonesia industry to be able to compete. According to Prof. Kadarsah, at ASEAN level, Indonesia was only able to rank second in quality category of food and beverages industry. Meanwhile, at the level of manufacturing industry, Indonesia position is always under Thailand and Vietnam. “Quality wise, we are always losing,” said Prof. Kadarsah.
Therefore development of a strong ecosystem of industry should be undertaken by Indonesia, in addition to strengthening innovation, human resources, and technology. Manufacturing industry should also be adjusted to the potential of natural resources owned by Indonesia.
“We possess natural potential but still many of them are managed by foreigners. It’s a problem that we must overcome, “said Prof. Kadarsah.
The manufacturing sector becomes constantly growing industry in Asia. This industry, he thinks, is able to provide a multiplier effect of 10 times. Based on the experience in the United States, employment in the automotive industry will be connected with 10 employment supports, ranging from supplier, distributor, to the food and beverage industry.
Furthermore, Prof. Kadarsah added, potential of the manufacturing industry in Asia were energy and the environment, transport and infrastructure, food and health, and information technology and creative industries.
Possessing Various Democracy Systems
At the same event, Professor of Social and Political Science, Prof. Dr. Dede Mariana, M.Sc., gave a public lecture on Political Culture in Asia. According to him, democratic system in Asian countries is fairly diverse.
“In general, countries in Asia have accepted democracy, but it is still hampered by the traditional values that exist,” said Prof. Dede.
Most of the political culture values in Asia further highlighted personal (values). This Professor of Public Administration explained that a variety of traditional values in Asia are still largely patriarchal authority, and nepotism.
“The general political culture value in Asia is still shifting on the nature of the parish (how the leader), as well as the subject (their emerging awareness but only for its own sake),” said Prof. Dede.
The desired political culture value according to Prof. Dede was the value of the participants. At this value, the politics is autonomous, or characterized by awareness of high political participation. “It deals with the how the public participate, or not, in making decisions,” said Prof. Dede.*
Reported by Arief Maulana / eh
