Comments from Indonesia Perspective on "Cross-border Movement of Researchers and Students " by Tatang Taufik

Session 1Cross-border Movement of Researchers and Students :

Comments from Indonesia Perspective

Dr. Tatang A. TaufikDeputy Chairman

Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) - Indonesia

Workshop II: Regional Development of Human Resources in AsiaINTERNATIONAL POLICY DIALOGUE

Soukairo Hall, the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) Tokyo - Japan, October 20, 2012

GENERAL OVERVIEW

1. Unless we also carry out some improvements from international partnerships that lead to a win-win situation, human mobility enhancement may worse-off some countries’ brain drain tragedy. Hence, it may be wise to take a step-by-step approach to this.

2. From a country’s development perspective, any attempts through policy measures need to bring practical benefits to solve development or real life problems faced the country. Even from human resource development activities, there are always high expectations of real socio-economic impacts. In addition, human mobility is generally considered as a part of human capital investment that can make better-off the country’s future.

BRAIN DRAIN

1. Emigration of highly qualified STI human resources (highly educated, experts, scientists, etc.) of a country

2. Migration /urbanization of talented people, usualy from rural (unattractive regions) to urban areas (more attractive regions/places)

3. Profession/occupation switching (from previous developed competency to different career paths)

4. Massive exodus from an R&D organization to other or different organizations.

GENERAL OVERVIEW

1. Focus – Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) or R&D fields as thematic priorities as the starting agenda : We need to focus on particular areas and direct the activities to support the green economy :a. Fundamentals for development in most of ASEAN countries :

FHEEW+T (Food, Health, Energy, Environment, Water, Transportation)

b. Very important to support the enhancement of the locality uniqueness for the sustainable industrial and regional competitive advantages : agrobased industries, herbal medicine, creative industries

c. Emerging technologies and cross-sectoral issues : nanotechnology and advanced material technology; international region-to-region partnerships.

GENERAL OVERVIEW

2. Balanced R&D activities & results : better balanced activities and results of having novelty in R&D on one side, and of providing socio-economic impacts of R&D on the other side.For countries like Indonesia, STI/R&D is important not only to support ‘new’/modern industries but also to provide significant contribution to the Bottom of the Pyramid of the society.

3. Longterm partnerships – longterm R&D joint projects : A longterm partnership framework needs to be designed so that the policy measures will be coherent and have the appropriate time to make some significant impacts. It is also important to provide good lessons that can be learned by all of the participating countries. General as well as specific collaborative roadmaps (blueprints) will be valuable to prepare multiyear partnership schemes.

COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS

1. Ref. Rec. 1 – A National Single Window Initiative : an ‘online’ visa service based on an integrated and simple framework and mechanisms needs to be established by collaborating countries through each country’s embassy’s or their consulate’s representative offices. – better and simple access for visa services – foster STI diaspora networks in the collaborating

countries.

STI DIASPORA NETWORKS :From Brain Drain to Brain Gain HR Mobility

Certain STI Organizations

Particular STI Field of Expertise (Industry)

Country of Origin

ST

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Knowledge-based Contribution

COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS

2. Ref. Rec. 1 – A (more) Comprehensive/Integrated Regional Arrangement : a regional arrangement to facilitate the cross-border movement of human resources should be considered not as a single and the only policy measure to foster the partnerships among the countries. A more comprehensive/integrated policy framework : facilitating the cross-border movement of human resources as an integral part of the policy measures.

COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS

3. Ref. Rec. 2 – The Coverage of professions/occupation and eligibility in the setting : the term of “engineers” should be broadly used and agreed to cover STI related professions such as researchers, planners, students, and post graduates as they directly involve in R&D and innovative activities; and make some necessary adjustment on the qualifications. But to avoid/minimize the ‘moral hazzards’ and to fulfill national security necessity, some specific eligibility requirements should be established and approved.

COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS

4. Ref. Rec. 2 – The Mutual Recognizition Agreement on Visa Treatment : Efficient and fair visa treatment scheme needs to be mutually recognized/approved by partnering countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Research and Technology, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Trade, and the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia should be involved in order to facilitate an agreement on a special visa treatment for the STI actors.

COMMENTS & SUGGESTIONS

5. Ref. Rec. 3 – Attractive and flexible funding supports : – Availability – Accessibility to the funding supports with flexible and

attractive mechanisms– Funding supports as attractive incentives to resolve

profession brain drain towards brain gain.

Dr. Tatang A. TaufikDeputy Chairman

Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi (BPPT)

Gedung II BPPT, Lt 13Jl. MH. Thamrin 8, Jakarta 10340 - INDONESIA

Telp. (021)-316 9441 / 9442Fax. (021)-319 24127

E-mail: [email protected]

... in harmony we progress ...

Thank You

Gerakan Membangun Sistem Inovasi, Daya Saing dan Kohesi Sosial di seluruh Wilayah Nusantara

(National movement to develop innovation system, competitiveness, and social cohesion

through out the Country)