Indonesia targets 15,000 engineers to master chip design technology
Jakarta (ANTARA) — The Indonesian government is targeting 15,000 engineers to learn and master chip design technology through a cooperation agreement between Danantara and Arm Limited.
The partnership, signed in London on Monday (23 February), is aimed at accelerating capacity building and national self-reliance in the development of strategic technologies, particularly in the semiconductor sector, which serves as a foundational element for a wide range of innovations and the digital ecosystem.
“Through this cooperation, it is hoped that Indonesia can provide training for 15,000 of our engineers within the Arm ecosystem, so they can master chip design technology. The cooperation plan will then be extended to the next generation of semiconductors or chips, enabling Indonesia to develop capabilities in semiconductors and design,” Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto explained in a statement in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Arm is one of the companies dominating the global automotive semiconductor market, particularly in chip design for data centres and artificial intelligence.
The Indonesian government has allocated an initial fund of US$150 million to build a national semiconductor ecosystem through the partnership.
This strategic partnership also marks an important step for Indonesia in transforming from a mere technology consumer into a high-value-added producer in the global supply chain.
Technology is regarded as a turbocharger for national economic growth, bridging Indonesia’s vast human resources and natural wealth with the need for high productivity towards the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision.
Furthermore, Coordinating Minister Airlangga explained that the cooperation is a direct follow-up to President Prabowo Subianto’s directive to strengthen national technological self-reliance, whilst also complementing the broader agenda of building food security and energy security.
The initiative is also positioned as a strategic leapfrog in strengthening Indonesia’s digital ecosystem.
The development of six national chip designs will focus on strategic intellectual property (IP) that will be owned by Indonesia.
“These six constitute IP — intellectual property — from which we can choose: one for automotive technology, a second for the internet of things, a third related to data centres, and then possibly home appliances. For the remaining two, we can choose whether we want something futuristic, particularly autonomous vehicles and quantum computing, among others. So all of this will still be discussed with Danantara, and the IP will be held by Indonesia,” said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.
Airlangga also mentioned that the cooperation will be directed towards building a national software capability development ecosystem through collaboration with several leading universities, including the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Gadjah Mada University (UGM), and the University of Indonesia (UI), which over the past nearly two years have been prepared to support this agenda.
National talent will receive direct training from trainers within the Arm Limited ecosystem.
In the next phase, the development of a new generation of chips will open up greater investment opportunities, including in the manufacturing (printing) aspect currently dominated by a number of global companies.
Going forward, these global companies are also expected to invest in Indonesia as part of strengthening the national semiconductor ecosystem.