Research is for the market

JAKARTA: Research in Indonesia should be commercially-oriented so that both R&D and business institutions can support each other, State Minister for Research and Technology Hatta Radjasa says.

R&D institutions should support economic development and benefit people in general, Hatta said when attending the inauguration of Kusmayanto Kadimanad, the new rector of the Bandung Institute of Technology.

Hatta said that Indonesia was in dire need of research in the fields of agriculture, technology, energy and aerospace.

"In fact it is one of the 11-point top priority programs that the government is focusing on until 2004," Hatta said.

The minister called on local scientists to speed up their research programs to help the economy recover.--Antara