Currently China and India are two countries that play important role in the world’s economy and technology. The success of these countries cannot be separated from the strong-willed young people and their leaders in building optimism. This was said by the Chairman of the International Association of Indonesian Scientists (I4), Dr. Nasir Tamara, D.E.A, D.E.S.S, in a public lecture The Resurrection Age of Asia China, India, and Indonesia, which took place at the Graduate School of UGM, Tuesday (3/5).
Some indications of the China’s are that China managed to sell 14 million cars per year, outnumbering the US which only managed to sell 11 million a year. China has also invested as much as 2.4 billion dollars in 420 companies in 75 countries abroad. "In the field of science, China has made innovation with the more patents they have obtained thanks to the research and development funding that has increased six folds in the last 10 years," says Tamara.
Although their economy has progressed quite rapidly, there are still a 1/10 Chinese people living in poverty with an income of U $ 1.5 per day. Meanwhile, India managed to become the country that develops its economy thanks to the successful demographic revolution by providing education for underprivileged young people, invites the entry of investments and trade, and very low tariffs of telecommunications outsourcing. Subsequently, India also conducts financial reforms in banking and the stock market. "India’s development policy focuses on economic growth and opening the markets more widely," he said.
According to Tamara, to be as successful as China and India, Indonesia’s young generation and leaders must build a stronger optimism in making changes in mentality and daring attitude to take risks in the innovation of knowledge. Tamara admitted that compared to China and India, Indonesia is still an underdeveloped country, whereas in 1955 all three countries are developing countries who are members of the Asian-African conference.
Tamara believes that there are three things that need to be conducted by Indonesia to be able to match China and India. First, the presence of public policies that expand employment opportunities and business as well as to enhance the quality of education and training. Second, to conduct the development program that aims to improve human resource capabilities in natural resource management. Third, regeneration of qualified and capable leaders. "The success of economies in Asian countries is actually more on careful selection of export strategy and through capacity building for manufacturing and infrastructure with cheap labor," he said.
With what is currently achieved by Indonesia, Tamara is optimistic that in 2050 Indonesia will be considered as the country with the world’s seventh largest revenue. In addition, Tamara also supports the cooperation between Indonesia and China, which is characterized by increased trading volume from the previous range of 3 billion dollars in 1997 to 20 billion dollars in 2006. "Now, the trade volume has reached 30 billion dollars in 2010," he said.
China has not only cooperated with Indonesia in the economic field, they also helped in the management of disaster rehabilitation in Indonesia. "For the tsunami disaster in Aceh, China has donated 52 million dollars of fund. It was quite a large number of fund compared to aid from other countries, while for the earthquake in Yogyakarta, China donated 3 million dollars," he concluded.