Science and Technology Achievements as Crucial Factors to Become Developed

Science and technology achievements in all fields and sectors of the country are very important to become a developed nation. Lesson learned and best practices from developed countries show all of these and no one can deny it. Achieving advancement in science and technology will also need research and development in the relevant field as a partner. This can't be neglected and should be done in a proper strategy as it has been done for instance by Japan after world war 2. After world war 2 Japan send their students to study abroad learning about science and technology from other countries and after that they came back to the country and developing new products that currently occupying almost most part of the world. One of the competitive advantage of Japan products that it has a mini aspect although it is not long lasting products. But it has another comparative advantage compared to other developed countries products, i.e. those products become cheaper and need immediate replacement which meant that new demand to the products would have risen. So, what types of science and technology needed to achieve and what type of products should be produced by Indonesia in order to get access and gain competitive advantage in the world market? This is a challenge to the country scientists and technological experts to find it as if we follow what has been done by Japan it would have been out of date and might not relevant to the current situation. In short term the types of science and technology that need to be developed in the country is the technology  that can replace as many as imported products from another countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea. In addition this way can save much of foreign currency instruments while reducing the dependency to foreign countries products. In mid term and long term the country need to produce the products that currently still being bought from abroad. Indonesia should be able to produce the products that are classified as a high technology products although it may not as high as what currently produced by the USA.  

Beyond Natural Resources, What Should We Do?

It is obvious that in term of human resources development point of view natural resources based country can not grow faster compared to other countries which depend themselves on the high quality of human resources, technology, and capital. The question is how the country with rich natural resources such as Indonesia could grow and become developed without developing its human resources quality? The answer for this question logically it is impossible to do that in the current world situation and context. The quality of human resources is very important and it can be gained through several ways, either thorugh the enhancement of training and education  for the people of the country or occupying high technology skills in all fields and it can also be done through training and education as well as through research and development. So that, it is also important to note that in order to have high quality human resources and occupying high technology skills we can't deny that either training and education or research and development are the most crucial part that the government should pay their attention for. This is inevitable and undeniable for all fields and sectors of the country, from health, energy, housing, education, electronics, manufacturing, transportation until military and defence technology. All should be occupied and  release the country dependence on foreign sources. The next questions are how can we do it and for how long? What condition favourable to do all of these, including economic and politcal conditions as well as the mentality of the people and bureaucracy of the country itself?

Does the Quality of Human Resources Really Become an Obstacle to the Country for Developed Faster?

This is the question that usually come to the mind of a human resources development expert when he or she think about the country situation, especially if it will be related to the number of population the country has. However, obstacles are so many and it does depend on the point of view how people perceive it. The result will also be different as the paradigm and perception are also differ between one and another, but there are many lessons that we can learn from other countries that have become developed such as Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. Those countries are not rely themselves heavily on natural resources like what Indonesia has done with oil and other commodities; and actually they rely themselves on the quality of human resources, technology as well as capital. Abundant with natural resources is a benefit to a country, but rely heavily on it is also very dangerous as when the price of the resources fall in the world market the country income would have also decreased. Therefore, it will be necessary also to Indonesia to develop the quality of its human resources and developing the appropriate technology in all fields including military technology in order to face the challenge of the dynamics of the world economy, while increasing the capital and paying the country foreign debt.

Indonesia: the Next Emerging Economy

Indonesia is a country that abundant with natural and human resources. However, beside its richfulness for both of sources there are still many problems faced by the country to become more developed and stand side by side with other developed countries. The problem mainly related to the quality of its human resources which are still mostly very low throughout the country and become wasteful in the development process. In addition there are also still many problems beyond of the quality of human resources, i.e about infrastructure facilities, corruptions, where both of it becoming obstacles to make the country more prosper and gives welfare to its people faster.