"According to existing plans, our hope to have a `technology breeding center` will be realized by April 2012," UI Rector Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri said here on Monday.
The signing of the plaque of the building named "Mochtar Riady Plaza Quantu, Universitas Indonesia" (MRPQ) was attended by Education Minister Mohammad Nuh as well as the founder of the Lippo Group Mochtar Riady.
Gumilar Somantri hoped the facility could provide technological raw materials for processing by industries.
The five-storey building on a 1,900-meter plot of land would provide basic research for industries to further process to meet their needs.
He said the pattern had been developed by Shizuoka University in Japan that provides basic technologies which were then developed by industries such as Sanyo to meet their needs to produce various kinds of household equipment.
He said the research center designed by UI architect Yori Antar would become one of the references for collaborative research in various disciplines in Indonesia.
With its world class reserchers UI could cooperate with many industries in the country to create local companies that would supply the needs of the people using technologies from local universities.
Mochtar Riady meanwhile said education was very important for the progress of a nation as without it it would be impossible to advance.
"Education is a strong basis for development," he said.
He said the quality of education in the country was not inferior compared to that abroad and in view of that "we need to give support to Universitas Indonesia."
The chairman of the UI board of advisors for 2002-2007 cares a lot about education progress especially technology development in the country.
He said he would provide Rp5 billion for the development of human resources so that the research could progress for the benefit of the people.
The founder of the Lippo Group has also set up the Mochtar Riady Institute of Nano-technology in Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang, Banten, which concentrates on liver cancer researches and is integrated with Siloam Hospitals Group and the teaching hospital in the Group.
Minister Mohammad Nuh meanwhile said nano-technology was relatively new so that seriousness would be needed for its management.
He said the technology is useful for human life including in the field of health, technology development, chip making and also economy. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
