3R INDONESIA

UNIDO PROJECT No. XP/INT/04/020-17- 51
Prepared by: Mohamad Yusman
yusmanmsc@email.com, yusman61@gmail.com

Preface
Transfer of foreign technology to Indonesia has been considered to position Indonesia as equivalent with and parallel to other nations. Therefore, Indonesia should increase the capability of the nation in mastering science and technology and place the S&T as one of the prime movers of the dynamic development of the country. Inter-Regional Group Training Workshop On Technology Needs Assessment For Developing Countries in Dakar was jointly organized by UNIDO and the African Regional Center for Technology (ARCT). It was attended by 23 participants from 13 developing countries from different regions of the world. This workshop was intended to assist Developing Countries in the technology needs assessment (TNA) task which covers three levels of technology needs assessment framework and tools to facilitate technology transfer: Those levels are (1) National level TNA; (2) Sector level TNA; and (3) Enterprise level TNA.
This workshop is very important for the development of Science and Technology in Indonesia and is expected to inspire and promote self confidence in science and technology development of Indonesia which will significantly promote and sustain national production underlined by a stable social environment.

Acknowledgments
First, I would like to thank to UNIDO for supporting and inviting me to attend the valuable workshop in Dakar, Senegal. My appreciation goes to Mr. Ouseph Padickakudi - Project Manager Industrial Promotion and Technology Branch
UNIDO, Mr. Mouhamadou Diop - Head Research and Technological Consultancy DivisionAfrican Regional Centre for Technology ARCT, UNIDO Consultant Mr. J.M. de Caldas Lima and Mr. J. Butler, and all represetatives from each country around the world. Finally, I am most grateful to Mr. Masayoshi Matsushita – UNIDOO Representative of Indonesia and his staff.

1. Introduction
1.1.Background
The development of science and technology is undertaken to raise the capability to make the best use of science and technological progress by way of increasing the utilization, development and mastery of science and technology. Thus, science and technology will have the capacity for providing supports to the sustainable development.
The activities to develop science and technology must be aimed at increasing the quality of community's movement, whether in economy, politic, social and culture, which are directed towards the strengthening of self-supporting capability, or political stability and its impacts to the global predominance. The success of those activities will in turn expand opportunities for diversification and employment, as these have shares in promoting the welfare of the society.
Therefore, activities to utilize, develop and master the science and technology are placed on how important to increase their capacity as a social system dynamist, through the absorption of results and the building of innovational power, to transform their achievements to be qualified and quantified as well as greatly useful, both to fulfill domestic needs and global markets. When frequently integrated with integrated activities, science and technology throughout the innovational devices that are resulted from research, development and engineering activities, will become one of the main foundations to the emergence of a competitive capability within the societal structures and national industries. Therefore, it needs to prioritize activities for multiplying adoption, adaptation, innovation, invention, and discovery to be carried out with a multi-discipline approach in dealing with production of goods and trading commodity services, which is followed with the increase of quality and quantity of man as users of science and technology.
Increasing the Capacity of Science and Technology Rapid changes brought about by globalization require that Indonesia accelerates the efforts to position itself as equivalent with and parallel to other nations. The increasing role of science and technology has become a must in order to increase domestic
competitiveness of goods and services that are based on local resources.

1.2. Technology Needs Assessments
Technology Needs Assessments (TNAs) according to UNIDO are frameworks and tools designed to identify and determine the capabilities needed to implement the technology priorrities of developing countries. They involve major stakeholders in a consultative process in order to identify national andd sectoral priorities and overcome the barriers to technology transfer at three key levels: (a) nation; (b) sector); and (c) enterprise.
The TNA will allow countries to self-access their overall national technological capabilities in areas such as policy making, research and technology organisations, the links between government and firms and the effectiveness of current national technology trategies and programmes.

1.3. Technology Capability
Technology capabiilities are abilities needed to carry out production realted activities, ranging from planning, the purchasng of equipment, plant start-up and operation, the adaptation of inputs, improvement to production 8processes, changes to product specifications, product processs interface engineering, incremental improvements to processes and products, new product design. Applied R&D and basic research.

There are three strategic levels of Technology Capabilities i.e. National/ Policy Capabilities, Sector Capabilities, and Firms/ Enterprises Capabilities. The crucial capabilities for Developing Countries is the managerial/sttrategic capability needed to select, acquire, absorb and implement specific technologies.

1.4. Staircase Model of National Capabilities in Developing Countries
The capability staircase model developed by Baden-Fuller and Stopford (1994), Bessan et al (2000) and Arnold et al (2000) describes four ideal types of national governments according to their degree of capability. The foru categgories are represented on a staircase of capability levels, from Type A (very weak) to Type D (very strong). Position of one country on this model may change by the time depends on how successful it is.



2. Technology Needs Assessment Workshop
The inter-regional group training workshop on Technology Needs Assessment for Developing Countries took place between 3 – 7 May 2005 in Dakar jointly organized by UNIDO and ARCT. It was attended by 23 participants from 13 developing countries from different regions of the world. In addition to the focus of the training program, workshop participants discussed a wide range of issues related to capacity building and shared technology policy and strategy experiences from their respective countries. Each of them made their presentations on the national technology policies and strategies for their respective countries to cover the role of technology support institutions and policy actions undertaken by their governments for promoting technology acquisition.

Technical presentations were given by UNIDO consultants J. Butler and J. de Caldas Lima. These were interactive in nature, and were followed by open discussions on issues of particular relevance for the workshop participants.
The first sessions were aimed at illustrating and explaining the Technology Needs Assessment framework: the tool was analysed and its purpose and applicability discussed. The UNIDO document on “Technology Needs Assessment for Developing Countries” was distributed to all participants, forming the base of the underlying methodology.

The final sessions of the workshop were characterised by group-works, held with the purpose of carrying a thorough analysis of the Technology Needs Assessment Tool at each level of application, namely national, Sectoral and Firm level. The structure of the tool was analyzed, and ways of adapting it as to make it applicable to country-specific conditions were discerned. The following recommendations were also made:

1.The TNA Framework has been developed to take into account the discussions and exchanges of all participants throughout the sessions, in order to address the different issues of specific countries, or sectors, or particular development related aspects. The framework therefore remains open to fine-tuning at each level in order to adapt it to particular prevailing circumstances and conditions.

2.In the process of implementation, the active commitment and participation of a wide range of stakeholders can be taken into consideration and the TNA methodology facilitates this consultation process.

3.Suggestions were offered by participants to introduce an international benchmarking scheme, which would provide additional incentives and benefits that would derive from the TNA exercise, and it was recommended that this aspect be given serious consideration.

4.The widespread diffusion of the TNA framework will require support mechanisms and translation of materials into various local languages so that the training of appropriate personnel is effectively facilitated.

5.The tool is an excellent platform for using and applying a range of UNIDO tools and techniques for guiding technology transfer, project management and other developmental approaches in a targeted fashion within the framework of sustainable development.

6.The recommendation to strengthen South-South Cooperation via the exchange of experiences and lessons derived from the application of the TNA framework emerged.

7.The respective country participants unanimously agreed to go ahead with the execution of the TNA framework at all the three levels (national, sectoral, and firm levels) in their respective countries and will therefore need technical support to do this.

8.The participants from the African Continent strongly urged for an implementation program in cooperation with the ARCT.

9.Participants also recommended that the ARCT be strengthened by UNIDO so as to enable it spearhead the much-needed South-South Cooperation within the TNA framework.

10.UNIDO was requested to set up a TNA monitoring and evaluation scheme among the participating countries for purposes of enhancing the sharing of lessons and experiences among participating countries.

3. Test Case: Self-Assessment Capability
In this test case, self-assessmet was carried out for National Government level. A small group of government S&T representatives are asked to answer the questions as depicted in the attachment 1 by entering 1,2,3, or 4 for each question. The fourr point scale corresponds directly to the fur categories of country as illustrated in figure 1.

Having carried out a simple TNA’s test case, the results based on the average value are as follows:



The above results show that according to simple test case of self-assessmet for National Government level the average score for each key technology capability area is 27, 26, and 22 respectively. They are all including their total score chaacterized as strategic which meanns that the government has strong in-house policymaking capabilities and takes a strategic approach to technology acquisition. In some areas, the country is behind the international technology frontier but has many important strengths upon which to build; the government react effectively to changing environmental needs.

4. Further Activities to Be Undertaken
Project activities still to be undertaken include the following:
- The application of the TNA tools and the assessment of technological capabilities at National, Sectoral and Enterprise levels through field-level operations in selected countries;
- The conduction of national workshops with key stakeholders and decision-makers to take forward the results of the Technology Needs Assessment exercise;
- The definition of an improvement path for technology upgrading;
- The continuation of targeted promotion of technology acquisition proposals among participating developing country institutions and the facilitation of technology match-making for business cooperation; and
- The establishment of a network for South-South technology diffusion among participating institutions.

Key actions are currently being undertaken, in order to achieve the completion of the above-listed activities. These include the selection of 4 countries, namely Indonesia, Kenya, Philippines and Senegal, in which to start field-level operations for the conduction of the TNA exercise. Workshop participants have been selected as national consultants responsible for the implementation of the process, and they have been asked to draft an implementation plan for such activities. Moreover, the TNA framework is currently under revision as to take into account the comments, suggestions and recommendations emerged from the Interregional Group-Training Workshop on Technology Needs Assessment. UNIDO assistance is foreseen at the national level during the conduction of the TNA exercise through monitoring and support, and for the planning, organization and conduction of the national workshops.
Furthermore, in light of South-South cooperation and technology acquisition promotion, possible ways of benchmarking the TNA results among different countries and permitting the sharing of different experiences and the confrontation of different pathways for technology upgrading are being discussed.