Jakarta – Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) deputy chairman for telematics, broadcast, research and technology Ilham Habibie has criticized the government for focusing too much on investment and not enough on human resources development.
"Don't just issue pro-business [policies], but also those that are pro-human resources development. Business is important, but we will achieve more if we pay attention to human resources development," said Ilham, son of former president BJ Habibie, as reported by tempo.co.
He was speaking at the Indonesia Economic Forum 2017 in Jakarta on Wednesday. He said weak human resources in Indonesia could be seen from Indonesian exports, which relied heavily on raw commodities.
He said Indonesia needed to improve its human resources so that it could export more competitive products and not solely rely on natural resources as otherwise, the economy would not be able to grow significantly.
Therefore, he added, Indonesia had to prepare human resources to assure the country could compete globally. "Human resources is not only a matter of education, but it relates to character building " he added.
He called on Indonesians to use globalization to learn from foreigners, saying citizens of the country had long interacted with foreigners through trade, missionaries and other activities.
Ilham is behind the development of 80-seat passenger planes – R80 planes –, expected to fly in 2021. (bbn)