S. Africa, RI plan energy cooperation
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Developing alternative sources of energy will be one of the key areas of cooperation between South Africa and Indonesia following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two governments earlier this week.
South African Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena, who was in Jakarta to sign the MOU on science and technology cooperation, said that research in this area was urgent because of economic and environmental issues.
"The price of oil is going up all the time, causing lots of hardship to all nations," he said. "Fossil fuels also cause pollution and contribute to global warming."
"The days of using oil and other fossil fuels to power the economy are numbered," he said.
The soaring oil price has prompted the Indonesian government to allocate Rp 76.5 trillion (US$7.65 billion) in fuel subsidies for this fiscal year.
The MOU also proposes scientific collaboration in biotechnology, the aerospace industry and in nuclear power development. The agreement will also facilitate an exchange of scientists between the two countries.
During his four-day trip here, Mangena visited the National Atomic Energy Agency Laboratory and the Center for Science and Technology Research, both in Serpong, Banten, and the Indonesian Institute of Science's biotechnology laboratory in Cibinong, West Java.
The minister completed his visit on Wednesday.
Indonesia's State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman agreed that finding renewable sources of energy would be a focus of the cooperation between the two countries that cohosted the Asian-African commemorative summit here in April.
"Wind energy, sea wave energy, solar energy or hydrogen energy could be considered in a joint strategy in developing alternative energy," Kadiman said.
He said Indonesia could provide technological assistance to South Africa in the development of biofuels, such as biodiesel or bioethanol.
The ministery has identified research in alternative and renewable energy as one of its six priority areas for scientific research and development expenditure, which accounted for roughly 0.05 percent of Indonesia's GDP in 2001.
Mangena, who is trying to push up South Africa's research and development expenditure from 0.81 percent of GDP to 1 percent by 2008, said that his country was focusing on developing hydrogen- powered fuel cell technologies as alternatives to fossil fuels.
He said that hydrogen would provide a clean source of energy as its byproducts consisted of only heat and water, as opposed to the harmful carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.
However, he said that more research was needed before commercially usable hydrogen would be available.
He said that it was important for developing countries to conduct scientific studies since the research agendas of developed countries were at times irrelevant to poorer country's needs.
"Our problems are similar ... that's why building a relationship with Indonesia will be very valuable," he said. (002)