Research and Technology Minister and National Research Agency (BRIN) head Bambang Brodjonegoro said last week that the law would help “downstream research”, government jargon for making research applicable for commercial purposes through greater participation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and regional institutions.

“With [easier] research and innovation downstreaming, coupled with economic digitization and encouragement to spur start-ups, the ministry believes we can accelerate our economic leverage, including creating new jobs, which would overcome unemployment and poverty,” said Bambang, as quoted by the ministry’s press release.

He cited Article 120 of the law as an example of SOE involvement. The article states that the central government can give “special assignments” to SOEs for “the function of public benefits”, although the law does not explicitly cite research as part of its “special assignments”.

State-owned enterprises have previously taken part in research and innovations. However, direct appointments from the government have yet to be formalized in previous laws.

He also said that Article 121 of the law would encourage greater regional institution involvement. The article stipulates that the country could source its human and natural resources from the region, meaning that conducting research would not only involve the central government and universities in the capital.

The government believes that supporting research downstreaming could spur innovations that would bolster Indonesia’s efforts to independently solve its problems, as recent indexes show that Indonesia still lags behind in terms of innovation.

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