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RI joins global race to become semiconductor hub, targets US investment
A semiconductor industry is an expensive investment due to its advanced and rapidly evolving technology that requires regular upgrading.
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An employee makes a chip at a factory of Jiejie Semiconductor Company in Nantong, in eastern China's Jiangsu province on March 17, 2021. (AFP/STR)
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s the government pushes for the establish of a semiconductor hub in the country, experts and foreign government officials have welcomed this ambition, given how the sector has turned into a fundamental building block of the modern world.
The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade, UK Defence and Security Exports director Mark Goldsack told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that deciding whether Indonesia should produce its own microchips was a game of finding balance.
“We all need an essential minimum, an irreducible minimum of stuff that we can control ourselves. […] ‘Do we need to make all the microchips necessary to sustain the car industry?’ No, we don’t. ‘Do we need enough to make the number of vehicles that are essential to the economy?’ Yes, we do,” he said.
Goldsack underlined that as a major car producer, it was logical for Indonesia to have semiconductor production onshore, at least to meet the minimum needs.
However, he pointed out that an extensive evaluation of the national supply chain was just as important because the option of trade and partnerships was always there to meet the balance.
“We live in a global world, none of us can produce everything we need ourselves. So, the trick is to be very clear where you can’t accept risk, [and take] it out, and where you can accept risk,” said Goldsack.
“Everybody will always want to produce some and nobody can produce everything. So, you’re on a scale, and you [have to] work out where on that scale you sit and it’s going to be driven by what the rest of your economic needs are,” he added.
