Indonesia's Great Leap Forward? Technology Development and Policy Issues

Technological development and technology policy are vital to Indonesian development in the 1990s and beyond. They are the subject of much public commentary and debate, there are major analytical and policy questions to be resolved, and the Indonesian government already allocates considerable resources to these activities. The purpose of this paper is to survey and assess Indonesia's industrial technological capability, and to highlight key policy issues, in the context of the large analytical and empirical literature on this subject for developing countries. Indonesia is a latecomer by East Asian industrial standards, and this is reflected in various technology indicators The paper suggests directions for effective technology policy. Additional informationNotes on contributorsHal Hill This paper draws on field research conducted in the early 1990s. I am particularly grateful to Thee Kian Wie for his assistance with the research and for permission to draw on his extensive writings on the subject, to Rony Bishry for much help with data and publications, and to H.W. Arndt, Rony Bishry, Sanjaya Lall, David McKendrick, Chris Manning, Robert Rice, Henry Sandee, Thee Kian Wie, Larry Westphal, and a Bulletin reader for helpful comments on an earlier draft The staff of the International Economic Data Bank, ANU, and Neng Hartono kindly supplied graph data. The usual disclaimer applies.