REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister of Technology, Research and Higher Education (Menristek Dikti) Muhammad Nasir has promised to increase research funds from 0.09 percent to 0.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Research fund will be increased to 0.5 percent in 2015-16 and will be sourced from combination funds raised from the government and private parties.

"We can allow only 0.5-percent increase because it is tough to raise it to one percent," Nasir said after launching Indonesian Science and Technology Indicators 2014 here on Wednesday (3/12).

While 74 percent of Indonesia's research and development (Litbang) expenditure is shared by the government, the remaining is funded by private parties.

The government should make extra effort to encourage private players to contribute toward Indonesia's science and technology development and boost private sector research, Nasir noted.

"In many countries, the private sector's contribution covers 80 percent of their total research cost. I will try to push the private sector through state-owned enterprises (BUMN) and the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)" he added.

Earlier, Head of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Iskandar Zulkarnain remarked that science and technology development in the country has mostly been stagnant over the last five years.

This became particularly evident in 2013, with a mere 0.01-percent increase in the ratio of gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) to gross domestic product (GDP) from the previous year.

Indonesia's GERD is currently 0.09 percent. The number is low compared to Malaysia's one percent (2012), Thailand's 0.25 percent (2012), and Singapore's 2.1 percent.

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