President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has placed human resource development at the top of his priority list for his second term in office. Indeed, the demographic bonus is an opportunity that must be utilized properly to accelerate development in Indonesia.

Without proper management capabilities, Indonesia will lose a great opportunity to catch up with more developed countries. Standard Chartered has predicted that the top 10 economies in 2030 will include seven countries that are currently emerging markets.

The survey by the multinational bank, which is based on purchasing power parity (PPP), predicts that Indonesia will occupy the fourth position of the world, just behind China, India and the United States. The challenge for Indonesia is to prove these predictions right.

The progress of a country depends on the development of a culture of literacy. The success of the environmental-based economic development of Scandinavian countries, which goes hand in hand with the development of a strong literacy culture is a concrete example.

Research conducted by John W. Miller and Michael C. McKenna of Central Connecticut State University on more than 60 countries and published in a 2016 report titled The World’s Most Literate Nations places the Scandinavian countries of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Norway in the top ranks. Indonesia ranks below 60th.

Some time ago, there were viral photos on social media of Japanese students absorbed in reading a book while waiting to board an airplane at an airport in Thailand. A strong literacy culture has been awake in Japan from an early age.

This explains the maintained quality and capacity of human resources in the country. Literacy culture is the cornerstone of national development in the country.

Indonesians need to learn from Japan about developing a literacy culture in the “sakura” country. The development of a literacy culture must continue to be driven by the awareness that national development assets are human resources.

The development of information technology is currently causing a decrease in reading interest in society. This has led to a decline in book sales in Indonesia due to a shift in interest from reading books or newspapers to social media.

This condition is quite alarming for Indonesia. The decline in reading interest has made it difficult for the government to develop quality human resources.

Many countries with abundant natural resource wealth fail in economic development because of human resources lagging behind. As a result, the country has social, political and economic problems, which is often called the natural resources curse. Examples include Nigeria, Tunisia and other countries.

Indonesia faces similar challenges with an extraordinary wealth of natural resources but human resources that fail to meet expectations of quality and capacity.

The development of information technology also contributed to the formation of Indonesia’s culture of wanting every instantly. A serious effort by the government is needed to deal with the problem of human resource development in Indonesia.

Encouraging an increase in literacy culture must be one of the concerns of the government in the development of human resources. Synergy is needed between various government institutions dealing with the problem. The Education and Culture Ministry cannot move alone.

Other government institutions that need to be involved in enhancing the literacy culture are the ministries in charge of research, communications and information technology, tourism and creative economy; the National Library, the National Archives (ANRI), the state-owned Enterprise of National Film (PFN), the state-owned enterprise of National Publishing (Balai Pustaka), news agency Antara, and the national television and radio public broadcasting institutions (LPP TVRI and LPP RRI).

Synergy between government institutions is to be achieved in the production, promotion and distribution of literacy-related programs. Liberalization in the television industry, which also plays a role weakening the literacy culture, must be countered by this synergy.

Synergy with NGOs is also needed for the development of the literacy culture including the Indonesian Publishers Association (Ikapi). More book exhibitions should be encouraged to increase reading interest and at the same time be an oasis for literacy lovers in the country

Cultivating literacy means building a foundation for improving human resources in a country. This is where the main challenge lies in building human resources.

If the government is serious and committed to increasing the human resource capacity of the Indonesian people and seizing the opportunities of the demographic bonus, developing a literacy culture is the main key.

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Literature industry observer, PhD in environmental science from the University of Indonesia

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