UNS — The Minister for State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) of Republic of Indonesia (RI), Erick Thohir visited Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta on Sunday (6/2/2022). The minister was welcomed by the Rector of UNS, Prof. Jamal Wiwoho, in dr. Prakosa Rectorate Building.
Erick Thohir visited UNS to take part as one of the speakers in the National Seminar “Unicorn Indonesia for the World: Discussing Government’s Strategies in Growing New Economic Power Towards Golden Indonesia 2045” held in G.P.H. Haryo Mataram UNS Auditorium. In the hybrid national seminar, the minister shared several important messages for UNS students regarding the future economic and workforce prospects.
The former president of Inter Milan Football Club stated that the golden age of Indonesia’s economy will be achieved in 2045. Therefore, in the journey to achieve the destination, he predicted that Indonesia’s economy would grow around 3-5 percent annually. This percentage is a great opportunity to place Indonesia at the fourth position in the greatest economy globally.
“The data really says that the global community sees that Indonesia will continue to grow until 2045,” he stated.
However, this potential needs to be supported by the increase in the number of entrepreneurs, which in developed countries could reach up to 10-14 percent of the population to support the economy. In Indonesia, only 3 percent of the population are entrepreneurs. Thus, he considers the sector as potential to be developed until 2045.
“The young generation of Indonesia, after research, want to be an entrepreneur. Because it is possible if jobs creation was only done by the central or local government, usually, jobs offered by entrepreneurs are larger and more massive,” Erick Thohir stated.
UNS Students are Demanded to be Adaptive
Increasing the number of entrepreneurs is only one of numerous challenges faced by the government to boost Indonesia’s economy towards 2045. The government is also faced with the issue of preparing technology-skilled human resources to support their efforts. Erick Thohir stated that currently, 17 million technologically adaptive and able-to-accelerate employees are needed because many new jobs were created while conventional and old jobs were replaced by technology. These new jobs are, for example, data scientist and analyst, big data engineer, biotechnology and food engineering, market research, medical personnel, and technologies
“It is a must that the economic growth in Indonesia is based on the nation’s ability in creating the best human resources’ skills,” Erick Thohir stated. “Therefore, I and the rectors, when I was invited as a speaker, it is important for universities, SOEs, private companies, and the central and local government to start mapping on the jobs that are growing. Because it will be a waste if we teach students, but the jobs are disappearing because of the technology,” he added. Humas UNS
Reporter: Y.C.A. Sanjaya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti