Indonesia's Research and Technology: Advanced or Still Lagging Behind?

Indonesia can no longer be described as a country that is entirely lagging behind in research and technology. The development of the startup ecosystem, financial technology, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and research at various universities shows that Indonesia’s technological capabilities continue to grow. However, when the measure is broadened and compared with the world’s leading innovation countries, the issue becomes more complex.

In the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025, Indonesia is ranked 55th out of 139 economies. This position actually shows significant progress compared with the 85th position in 2020. Indonesia is also ranked sixth in ASEAN, after Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines.

However, this ranking is not enough to say that Indonesia’s research and technology ecosystem is already advanced. WIPO notes that Indonesia’s weaknesses are still visible in human capital and research, which is ranked 92nd, business sophistication at 83rd, and infrastructure at 71st.

The question then is not simply whether Indonesia is able to use technology, but whether Indonesia already has sufficient capability to create, develop, and master that technology.

Progress Exists, but the Research Foundation Remains a Problem

One important indicator for seeing a country’s research strength is the size of its expenditure on research and development (R&D).

World Bank data sourced from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics shows that Indonesia’s R&D spending has remained in the range of 0.2–0.3 percent of GDP in recent years for which data is available. In the World Bank series, the figure was recorded at 0.25 percent in 2017, 0.24 percent in 2018, 0.23 percent in 2019, 0.27 percent in 2020, and 0.28 percent in 2021.

This figure shows a considerable challenge when compared with countries that make research the main engine of their technological development.

As an illustration, UNESCO data used in various international databases shows that Indonesia’s researcher density in 2020 was around 395 researchers per one million population. This figure is far below South Korea, which reached around 8,620 researchers per one million population, Japan at around 5,450, and Singapore at around 7,503 in the same year.

This difference is important because technology does not emerge on its own.

Artificial intelligence requires computer scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and researchers. Health technology requires doctors, biologists, pharmacists, and other scientists. The semiconductor industry requires experts in materials, electronics, physics, manufacturing, and chip design.

In other words, a country’s technological capability depends heavily on the number and quality of people who are able to conduct research and create new knowledge.

BRIN itself, through the 2025 Indonesian Science, Technology, Research, and Innovation Indicators, places research spending, science and technology human resources, research performance, and the contribution of science and technology to the economy as important indicators for viewing the condition of the national research ecosystem.

Thus, Indonesia’s problem is not only a lack of technology. The more fundamental problem is how to build a scientific foundation so that Indonesia does not merely become a user of technology from other countries.

Indonesia Is Already Able to Innovate, but Has Not Yet Become a Technology Leader

Calling Indonesia a completely lagging country is also not accurate.

In fact, there have been quite interesting developments in recent years. Indonesia’s ranking in the GII improved from 85th in 2020 to 55th in 2025. WIPO also assesses that Indonesia’s innovation performance is above expectations based on its level of economic income.

This shows that Indonesia has better innovation capabilities than might be expected based solely on its income level.

Indonesia also has a number of large technology companies, a startup ecosystem, a digital industry, and technological developments in digital payments and the internet-based economy.

However, innovation does not stop at the ability to create applications or adopt existing technology.

The more important question is: how many strategic technologies are truly created and mastered domestically?

In the GII 2025, Indonesia is ranked 60th for innovation inputs and 59th for innovation outputs. This gap shows that Indonesia is relatively able to produce innovation outputs, even though its input capacity still faces various limitations.

Indonesia also does not yet have an innovation cluster included in the list of the world’s top innovation clusters in the GII 2025.

This indicates a major homework assignment.

Countries such as South Korea, Japan, the United States, China, and Singapore build ecosystems that connect universities, research institutions, government, and industry. Research does not stop as journal articles, but can be developed into products, technologies, companies, and even new industries.

Indonesia needs to strengthen the same connections.

Research on campus should not only end as a final assignment or publication. Research must increasingly be directed towards answering the needs of industry, society, health, energy, food, defence, and the environment.

What Does Indonesia Need to Improve?

If Indonesia wants to catch up with more technologically advanced countries, increasing the research budget alone is not enough.

The first thing that must be strengthened is the quality of human resources.

The number of researchers needs to be increased, but quality must also be considered. Researchers need adequate laboratories, access to equipment, data, funding, international networks, and opportunities to conduct research.