Bio-business Prospects in Indonesia

"Indonesian bio-business could become internationally competitive", said the authors of the paper on "Bio-business, a new gold mine in Indonesia."  The paper was presented by Ms. Dewi Suryani of Indonesian Biotechnology Information Center and Kalman Emry Wijaya of the School of Pharmacy during the 1^st Indonesian Conference for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Small Business 2009. Indonesia is the second country in the world that has the largest biodiversity which could open big opportunities and prospects in bio-business. However, there are a lot of challenges that hamper developments in medical and agriculture biotechnology, the development of which is the basis of bio-business.

Among the recommendations discussed by the authors include: improving the public understanding of biotechnology (agriculture, medical, transgenic and other related issues); inclusion of local government (central and autonomy system) in policies regarding biotechnology; establishing the regulatory system (act, decree, guideline) by the government to convince investors and opponents; supporting several biotechnology institutions in the development and promotion of biotechnology products (GMO, medical biotechnology); and optimizing collaboration and the use of infrastructure in intra and inter research center/university in Indonesia.

For more information about the paper on "Bio-business, a new gold mine in Indonesia", visit http://www.ciel-sbm-itb.com/icies/ or contact the author at dewisuryani@biotrop.org