Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology Stella Christie stated during the “2025 China-Indonesia Education-Industry Collaboration Summit” here on Wednesday that Indonesia requires more experts across various fields to support its downstreaming efforts.
"That is why it is very important to improve the quality of our workforce serving as experts in major foreign companies, including Indonesians who graduated from China. We must prepare them from university and polytechnic levels,” Christie said.
She emphasized that successful industries must innovate to survive and grow economically.
"If the industry does not innovate, then eventually it will die, economically and in terms of business," she explained.
She revealed that in developed countries, many innovations originate from universities, often more than those coming from companies.
Therefore, through this initiative, the Ministry is inviting both universities and industries from China to collaborate in realizing the acceleration of downstreaming and industrialization in Indonesia.
"We want to promote the (academic-industry) matching in two aspects, in terms of workforce and in innovations, so that our excellent researchers in Indonesia can downstream and scale up the results of their research," Christie explained.
She added that China was chosen as a key partner due to the large number of Indonesian students pursuing higher education there.
According to her, China offers quality education, proximity, and more affordable costs compared to Europe or the US.
"Moreover, opportunities to work afterward, especially in Indonesia, are promising, because many companies from there are investing here,” she pointed out.
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Translator: Sean, Kenzu
Editor: Primayanti
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