Do we lag behind in the age of 4.0?

Dimas Muhamad
Works at the Foreign Ministry

PREMIUM

Cambridge, Massachusetts / Tue, July 30, 2019 / 01:45 pm

Illustration of Industry 4.0. (Shutterstock/File)

In 1965, South Korea came up with a plan that one economist called “the worst business proposal in human history” and it was not hard to see why. Seoul planned to create a state-owned enterprise that produced steel at the time when the country’s gross domestic product per capita was less than half of Ghana’s and its exports were either natural resources or basic manufactured products. As stunned as people were when they heard about the plan, what was even more astonishing was how this plan eventually turned out. This laughable proposal gave birth to POSCO, which is now the world’s fifth-largest steel producer. Just like South Korea then, Indonesia today faces similar incredulity. Last year the government hatched a national strategy in promoting Industry 4.0. Skepticism abounds, the detractors argue that Indonesia is just not cut out for Industry 4.0. T...