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RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180645Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4507
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS COLL
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 3130
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6038
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 3717
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 5451
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000211 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR STAS, OES, AND EAP 
DEPT PASS TO OSTP JASON RAO 
COMMERCE FOR NOAA 
BANGKOK FOR RDM/A 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TSPL TBIO SCUL SENV ENRG PGOV ID
SUBJECT: INDONESIA WELCOMES U.S. SCIENCE ENGAGEMENT 
 
REF: Jakarta 155 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  All corners of Indonesia's science and policy 
community welcomed President Obama's science envoy engagement 
effort.  Despite Science Envoy Dr. Bruce Alberts' last minute injury 
preventing his travel, the GOI pressed on with the majority of the 
January 18-29 planned schedule with OSTP Senior Advisor Jason Rao 
and NSC Senior Director Pradeep Ramamurthy.  On January 20, as 
planned, President Yudhoyono laid out his national science 
objectives in front of an audience of the Indonesian Academy of 
Sciences, more than half of his cabinet, and 800 science leaders. 
President Obama's statement read by Ambassador Hume received warm 
welcome by the science community and media.  Dr. Rao visited two 
major research clusters, universities in Jogjakarta, and alongside 
USAID Jakarta and Embassy Public Affairs addressed 50 universities 
and 16 rectors over digital video network.  Rao and Ramamurthy 
discussed science engagement with former President B.J. Habibie and 
top science leaders (reftel).  Overall, Indonesian interlocutors 
expressed great desire for science and technology cooperation with 
the United States.  They also noted that compared to the Japanese, 
Germans, Koreans and others, the U.S. had been relatively absent for 
over a decade since the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis.  Many active 
collaboration activities with U.S institutions resulted from 
Indonesian returnees from their science studies in the U.S.  The GOI 
has asked to conduct Digital Video Conferences to continue working 
on science engagement and hopes Dr. Alberts can visit as soon as 
April if his physical rehabilitation allows.  End Summary. 
 
President Yudhoyono's Historic Address 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The original conception of the January 20 event at the 
Indonesian Academy of Sciences was a lecture by Bruce Alberts 
attended by President Yudhoyono.  However, former President B.J. 
Habibie, a science champion, spoke to President Yudhoyono suggesting 
a historic address similar to what President Obama did with the 
National Academy of Sciences in April 2009.  Yudhoyono embraced the 
idea, and, despite Dr. Alberts' sudden injury that prevented his 
travel to Indonesia, continued with his address.  Ambassador Hume 
read a statement from President Obama for this event, which received 
warm welcome by the Indonesian science community and the media. 
Before an audience of 800 from the Indonesian Academy of Sciences, 
other national science leaders, and more than half of his cabinet, 
Yudhoyono identified science and technological innovation as the key 
to unlocking Indonesia's future growth and development.  He laid out 
the key steps: changing Indonesia's mindset, being open to 
collaboration with the international science community, fostering 
entrepreneurship to bring innovation to market, and then protecting 
the rights of the innovators.  He also listed areas for 
international science and technology cooperation: poverty, green 
technology, food, industry, medical, disasters, marine affairs, 
defense, transportation and biotechnology.  Finally, Yudhoyono 
announced the creation of the National Innovation Committee that 
will design a national innovation system and report directly to 
him. 
 
Former President Habibie's Suggestions for S&T Activities 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) In meeting a meeting with OSTP Jason Rao, Habibie proposed 
that President Obama address a gathering of the International 
Islamic Forum for Science, Technology and Human Resource Development 
(IIFTIHAR).  IIFTIHAR is an international Muslim science 
organization established in 1996 by 84 non-government Islamic 
Organizations.  (Note: See www.iiftihar.org for more background 
information.)  As IIFTIHAR's chairman, Habibie offered to invite 
members from around the world, including Egypt and Turkey, to gather 
for an annual meeting in Jakarta at the time of President Obama's 
visit.  Dr. Rao agreed to take the proposal back to the White House 
for consideration.  Turning to U.S-Indonesia science relations, 
Habibie pointed out that the U.S. has been absent since the 1998 
Asian Financial Crisis, and that "someone else will fill the gap if 
the U.S. does not."  He recommended that science and technology 
cooperation between the U.S. and Indonesia focus on solving problems 
at the sector-specific level in a way that can bring new jobs to 
both Indonesia and to America.  He hoped that cooperation in 
aerospace and transportation, including marine, could be revived 
 
JAKARTA 00000211  002 OF 003 
 
 
with the U.S.  "Transportation advances to link Indonesia's 18,000 
islands is the key to solving the whole host of development, health, 
food security, and social issues in Eastern Indonesia," he said.  He 
emphasized that transportation must be prioritized, otherwise all 
the focus and funding will go to agriculture and medicine.  Finally, 
he expressed his strong desire to see the U.S.-Indonesia S&T 
Agreement concluded as soon as possible.  The original 
U.S.-Indonesia S&T Agreement that Habibie signed was Indonesia's 
first. (See Jakarta 155 on Ramamurthy's lunch meeting with 
Habibie.) 
 
Ministry of Research and Technology: 7 Priorities 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Dr. Rao met with three deputy ministers of the Ministry for 
Research and Technology (MRT), led by Deputy Minister for 
International Cooperation Dr. Teguh Rahardjo.  They laid out 
Indonesia's seven research and technology priorities: energy, food 
security, information and communication technology, defense, 
transportation, medicines, and advanced materials.  Each year the 
Ministry provides research grants from a pot of approximately USD 12 
million via proposal competition.  Of the 4,000 proposals received 
each year, less than 10% receive funding.  The brainstorming 
discussion ranged from the possibility of joint funding and 
selection of grant recipients on common scientific goals, bringing 
additional USG POCs with Dr. Alberts for the 7 priority areas, short 
courses in Indonesia taught by visiting U.S. professors, increasing 
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students in both 
directions, to establishing metrics to measure progress. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Director for International Cooperation Nada Marsudi 
reported that research permits approved by her ministry for U.S. 
cooperative projects were up by 5 to 73 in 2009.  However, she 
pointed out that it is difficult to know the specifics of all the 
cooperative activities.  Japan, Germany, UK have placed resident 
advisors inside the ministry to help improve coordination on joint 
activities.  Deputy Minister for Utilization and Dissemination of 
S&T Idwan Suhardi noted that USAID grants have helped in the area of 
bringing technology to market. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Deputy Minister for Clinical Microbiology Amin Soebandrio 
explained that not all health-related issues fall under the Ministry 
of Health.  Basic and non-clinical research is done by institutes 
coordinated by MRT and by universities.  These include vaccine 
development, diagnostics, and drug development.  He said many 
cooperation avenues exist, but politically we need to find a way to 
deal with the NAMRU issue.  Dr. Rao responded that the important 
focus is to help people, noting that disease knows no borders and 
health security must be global. 
 
Visits to Research Institutes and Labs 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Dr. Rao visited the main research campus of the Indonesian 
Institute of Sciences, the Cibinong Science Center in Bogor.  The 
40-hectare facility conducts research on Molecular Farming, R 
protein inhibitors effective against Avian Flu, Genetic Hunting and 
Transgenic Rice, energy production from microalgae, and many other 
areas.  The center also houses Indonesia's largest botanical (3 
million), bird (2 million) and insect (2 million) collections.  The 
institute struggles to digitize the collections, and so far less 
than 10% have been studied.  They welcome foreign scientists to come 
and use the collections. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Dr. Rao also visited the 120-hectare Training Center for 
Research, Science, and Technology run by the Ministry of Research 
and Technology.  The center is a science cluster that includes many 
other research institutes, including Indonesia's nuclear research 
labs.  The main labs visited and proposals collected involve 
biomass, ocean and earth sciences, and chemistry.  Dr. Rao also 
visited labs that test and provide verifications based on requests 
from industry.  Information, proposals and Indonesian POCs have been 
provided by e-mail to OSTP Dr. Rao. 
 
Academic Institutions 
--------------------- 
 
 
JAKARTA 00000211  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶9. (SBU) In Jogjakarta, Dr. Rao visited and held discussions with 
the science faculty of Muhammadiyah University, an Islamic school of 
11,000 students.  The university currently has programs focused on 
developing small-scale clean energy solutions for local communities. 
 They hope to develop models that can be replicated throughout 
Indonesia, and have coordinated closely with local and central 
government energy officials.  Funding comes from a Dutch grant. 
Muhammadiyah hopes U.S. scientists can join their efforts in clean 
water, environment management, and organic agriculture.  Dr. Nas 
Wadi briefed on Muhammadiyah's international program on Law & Sharia 
and Islamic Banking, currently carried out in collaboration with 
Australia and Malaysia.  Wadi invited U.S. lecturers to visit 
Muhammadiyah and participate in the program.  Dr. Rao also visited 
and spoke with students at the American Corner on campus. (Note: 67% 
of Muhammadiyah graduates find jobs in their field, while the 
remaining 33% become entrepreneurs or housewives who may never enter 
the workforce.  Muhammadiyah graduates many who enter Indonesian 
political careers in both central and local government.) 
 
¶10. (SBU) Dr. Rao visited Gadjah Mada University (UGM), arguably 
Indonesia's premier institute of higher learning with 56,000 
students.  UGM Rector Sudjarwadi noted that he had read the OSTP 
blog that morning and looked forward to working together to make the 
unknown known.  They discussed a wide range of UGM activities and 
links to several U.S. universities.  Sudjarwadi expressed desire for 
cooperation with the U.S. on mathematics and natural sciences, and 
offered to provide facilities for visiting U.S. professors.  Dr. Rao 
then visited the Institute of Tropical Disease and Faculty of 
Veterinary Medicine and discussed Indonesia-specific findings on 
Avian Flu resistance and virus characterization.  NSC Senior 
Director Ramamurthy  joined Dr. Rao for discussions with students at 
the American Corner, before meeting the regents of the University 
over dinner.  In contrast to Muhammadiyah University, nearly all of 
UGM graduates find jobs in their respective fields of study. 
 
Next Steps 
---------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) The GOI has suggested that Dr. Alberts visit Indonesia as 
soon as mid-April, pending the progress of his rehabilitation from 
surgery.  In the meanwhile, they welcome Dr. Alberts' requests for 
DVCs to continue the conversation and coordination of activities. 
 
¶12. (SBU) OSTP Dr. Rao has cleared this message. 
 
HUME