Indonesian Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said on August 31 that the country is moving towards self-producing semiconductor chip products, in line with the government's goal of reducing dependence on import.

Illustrative image (Photo: usatoday.com)

According to Agus, in order to achieve this goal, government support is needed in both policies and facilities such as incentives to encourage investment in the semiconductor industry in Indonesia. Indonesia believes that the semiconductor chip manufacturing industry will become increasingly strategic in global and national economic growth, especially as the industry continues to evolve from microcontroller chips to Artificial Intelligence (AI) chips with increasingly complex functionality.

The minister said the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the US-China trade tensions have impacted the supply chain of chips for a variety of needs such as cars, computers, electronic goods and telecommunications equipment as well as AI devices. Therefore, Indonesia must come up with optimal ways to protect the national industry and prepare a secure supply chain of semiconductor chip components.

The development strategy of the semiconductor industry needs to be looked at from different angles since this is a time-consuming, capital and human resource intensive industry to develop with very strict quality criteria, he said.

Agus added that Indonesia is looking to join the global semiconductor industry value chain through cooperation with multinational partners and start-ups around the world.

Source: VNA