tulisan dari mahasiswa SGU (Swiss German University) di koran The Jakarta Post, tentang sektor IT yang harus dilirik dan digalakkan oleh pemerintah indonesia.
============= IT as an economic engine Reggio Nurtanio Information technology (IT) is changing the way we live, work, play, communicate and do business. It has proven to be very successful and efficient in shaping our economy. Businesses are scrambling to use IT to improve their management, marketing and to minimize costs. It seems Indonesia is quite a good consumer of these technologies, but has not been a significant supplier of information technology. The country has many computer scientists and engineers, but the government has done nothing to help facilitate the growth of the IT industry. I believe the slow economic growth in Indonesia could be helped by pushing the growth of the IT industry. We have seen IT companies contributing large amounts to a country's income, so why shouldn't Indonesia try and go for it? For starts, the government can try to groom the software industry. Software does not need a lot of natural resources. Instead, it absorbs a great deal of manpower, which is good to solve the unemployment problem in the country. Just take a look at Singapore, which is now cultivating its software industry. They are aware that this industry suits the country well, where there are not a lot of natural resources but there is a hoard of code-writing geniuses. I can say that here in Indonesia, there are a lot of good computer programmers. This can be seen from the amount of security breakers (hackers) that come from Indonesia. Unfortunately, they don't get the jobs and appreciation they deserve. In the long run, the IT industry is a very promising investment for the government. It does not take up too many resources, while creating a lot of job opportunities. The government should instruct universities nationwide to improve their students' skills in software engineering. Then they should motivate IT experts to establish a local industry by providing incentives, especially for companies exporting IT products. ================= IT helps win global competition Erick Liemarga Since 1998, many economic experts have tried to dig the country out of its economic crises. However, Indonesia does not seem to be as lucky as China and India, which recorded high economic growth over the past five years. Taking a closer look at the economies of the two countries, however, we will soon realize that one of the key factors of their robust economic growth is their IT development. Why IT? In global competition, great military power or huge natural resources may win the competition, but it's going to be short-lived. Sooner or later, military power collapses and natural resources are exhausted. IT, on the other hand, will continue to develop and will never be out of date. Following that reasoning, it's rather ridiculous that Indonesia's IT sector has not been fully developed. There is no doubt that Indonesia is the fourth biggest country in terms of population. It also has huge natural resources and there are so many young talented IT graduates. Well, I guess the government should give more support and freedom to the people. There are numerous good programmers and computer enthusiasts in Indonesia. We should recruit them to develop the country's IT sector. The problem, I think, is the government has not realized the potential of IT in the country's economy and has no policy in place that can really support the sector. The government has to help develop more software companies and give more attention to youngsters who demonstrate high skill in IT development. A well-developed IT sector would help Indonesia survive global competition. =============== It's high time to develope IT Albertus Rendy Buntaran Information and communications technology has the potential to enhance the levels of both innovation and productivity in the economy. To realize these potentials, however, we should work to establish the key-enabling conditions -- content, confidence and capability and connection -- and recognize the needs of key user groups, namely individuals and businesses. Economic development based on IT is called "Information Economy". This term is represented as a modern economic development. However, can this be applied in Indonesia as the basis for national economic development? Of course, it can be done. However, we have to meet several prerequisites. First, we have to improve our IT infrastructure. The government is currently providing us with a very unreliable information service. Despite the poor service, we users have to pay a lot every month for a very slow internet connection. This kind of information technology does not help us much in doing business. The government should make improvements to IT infrastructure one of its priorities. The business community itself, however, must start converting their conventional ways of doing transactions by using IT. That might seem strange at the beginning, but soon they will realize that IT really helps them. For example, we do not need to approve every transaction request at our main office. Using IT services through PDA and Notebook, we can approve business transactions anywhere and at anytime. Lastly, we have to identify what kind of IT services we need to support our economy. Basic services, such as internet connection, are definitely a primary requirement for us to start using IT for our economy. Other services that we can group as secondary services are banking, online instant credit card approval, online membership registration and company websites. ============== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
