FYI: Good news about Indonesia ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- KNOWLEDGE GAPS PROGRAMMERS IN PARADISE http://www.feer.com/_0011_09/p044innov.html Far Eastern Economic Review ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- By Dini Djalal/BALI Issue cover-dated November 9, 2000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Picture a hillside sanctuary set amid the lush rice terraces of Bali, Indonesia's paradise island. It provides all the comforts of a five-star resort, but this place is, in fact, a hi-tech centre. Welcome to Balicamp, an oasis of calm for stressed-out computer programmers. It's the brainchild of information-technology developer Toto Sugiri. At the height of Indonesia's political upheaval in 1998, Sugiri was going through a crisis of his own. His software firm, Sigma Citra Harmoni, was fast losing programmers to rival firms in more stable countries such as Singapore. And as the rupiah plummeted, Indonesian programmers quickly realized their skills could earn them at least three times more overseas. In an effort to stem the brain drain, the 47-year-old entrepreneur decided to create the perfect retreat, where programmers could work without worrying about riots. The centre has been in operation for just over a year; but it officially opened last month. Now, the rattle of typing fingers spars with the shrill of cicadas fluttering above the nearby paddy fields. In the Balinese-style thatched-roofed bungalows, 80 programmers are busy writing code for the likes of Microsoft and Oracle. Inside, each bungalow is like an office, equipped with computers connected to a satellite in Hawaii for high-speed Internet transmissions. Sugiri describes his young designers, many of them hand-picked from colleges across Indonesia, with fatherly pride: "They are as good as any Indian programmers." They had better be, to help realize Indonesia's aim of winning a 1% share of the $35 billion global software outsourcing industry, which India dominates. It's an ambitious plan. Computers are considered a luxury for Indonesia's 220 million people. The government barely has any budget for education, much less for IT programmes. Computer education starts only in high school, if at all. To make matters worse, the government has a habit of complicating the industry's rules rather than easing them. Earlier this year, a new law attempted to curtail foreign investment in multimedia. It was later scrapped after industry players protested it would stymie development. Minister for Research and Technology Mohamad Hikam admits there is a lack of direction and little cooperation between his department and other government departments responsible for IT, such as the Telecoms Ministry. "We have so many offices talking about IT, but we don't really know what action we will take," he says. A further hurdle is command of English--the language of cyberspace. Indonesians' English generally lags behind that of Indians, and of Filipinos, whose country is also a regional software centre. OVERSEAS DEMAND Yet Sugiri is confident that Balicamp has potential. And he has some high-profile friends on his side. As well as Microsoft and Oracle, clients include dozens of local banks and corporations. "Local companies are wary of overseas-packaged products and want home-grown applications," says Microsoft Indonesia director Richard Kartawijaya. He has commissioned Sigma to produce an Indonesian-language spell-checker. Is Balicamp making money? It cost $3 million to build and has made $2 million to date. Next year's revenue target is a lofty $7 million. But Sugiri says that's achievable, as are Indonesia's long-term ambitions to become a key hi-tech centre. Indeed, industry players say that the language barrier is slowly being lifted--thanks to the Internet. Chris Mangowal of Jakarta-based IT recruitment firm Sumberdaya Info Prima is already seeing results. He first sent programmers overseas at the height of the 1998 financial crisis in Indonesia, when bankrupt firms laid off employees by the dozens. Now he can barely keep up with demand from firms in the region, as well as the United States and Europe. State-owned telecoms giant Telkom plans to open an IT training centre in Bandung, West Java, next year. And Indian companies also are waking up to Indonesia's potential. LCC Infotech, an Indian IT firm, opened a $500 million IT training centre in Jakarta in October. Sugiri hopes the mix of natural pleasures and hi-tech gadgetry at Balicamp will entice stressed Silicon Valley types to try his software boutique. This way, he says, Sigma programmers can learn international-calibre skills, and the developer returns home with a great product--for at least half of what it would cost at home
