“Technology is one of main drivers of economic growth because of its ability to generate innovation and to improve quality of human’s life. However, technology might create problems if the policy is not ready to adapt with the change of environment. The government needs to create policy that is able to anticipate and to predict the recent trend in technology,” said Jusman Syafii Djamal, President Commissioner of Garuda Indonesia and former Minister of Transportation at Jakarta Campus, today (5/4/2017).
As part of TK Low Series of Seminar, Jusman explained how our environment has changed radically in the past decades. The environment now is in the state of VUCA, stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. Several phenomena confirm this complexity such as the drop of oil price, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and the rising number of urbanization.
Looking at those phenomena, Jusman gave his warning. If the government fails to create appropriate policy, then new problems will occur. Jusman explained the new problems in the geography of inequality. In the geography of inequality, as the number of consuming class is increasing, rapid urbanization is going to happen. It is predicted the urbanization rate will reach 67 percent by 2025 as cities become the center of growth. People will live in the periphery of the city, while the jobs are available in the core city. The government needs to provide jobs, housings, and basic facilities for the people to live properly.
In the end of the session, Jusman also mentioned about the role of universities, he suggested that top university like ITB must focus on doing research in new area that has never been explored before. For example, as we now are moving to the era of information and nano-technology, research on these areas need to be intensified. In that way, we can gain our competitiveness.
The talk today attracts the civitas of SBM ITB to attend the session. Some questions were raised in relation to how technology shapes the economic policy. The questions range from the future of electric car to what should be prioritized by the government to increase economic growth.