Singapore – Indonesia Tech:X Program: A New Chapter in Bilateral Cooperation

JAKARTA, RAKYAT NEWS— Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, met with Singapore’s Minister for Manpower, Tan See Leng, on the sidelines of the 2nd Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) meeting. The two ministers discussed enhancing cooperation in technology and the development of human resource capacity.

A key topic of discussion was the implementation of the Tech:X Program, which offers young technology professionals from both Indonesia and Singapore the opportunity to gain one-year work experience in each other’s technology industries.

“Following the signing of the Technical Arrangement on the Indonesia-Singapore Tech:X Programme on June 7, 2024, during the 14th Ministerial Meeting of the Indonesia-Singapore Six Bilateral Economic Working Groups (MM 6WG), both parties are now preparing to enroll the first batch of participants through a pilot project,” Airlangga stated in Jakarta

Airlangga expressed his hope for stronger collaboration between Indonesia and Singapore across various sectors, including education, human resource development in the semiconductor field, and expanding cooperation in Batam, Bintan, and Karimun (BBK) regions, particularly in energy and undersea cable sectors.

“Indonesia aims to focus on developing human resource expertise in microelectronics to establish a semiconductor ecosystem in the country. We invite Singapore to support Indonesia in this development,” Airlangga explained.

Singapore remains a key economic partner for Indonesia in investment and trade, being the largest investor with over USD 15 billion invested in Indonesia in 2023 alone, accounting for about 30% of all foreign investment.

In addition to technology cooperation, the ministers also discussed the 2nd AZEC Ministerial Meeting, the bilateral Indonesia-Singapore Six Bilateral Economic Working Groups, Indonesia’s planned accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Indonesia’s participation in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. (Uki Ruknuddin)