On Friday (28/5), the Dean of FTMD Prof. Tatacipta Dirgantara and Jung Young Doo from CAMTIC (Advance Mechatronics Technology Institute for Commercialization) officially commenced the collaboration program of improving the development of machinery tools. This event was held at FTMD’s library and was attended by Chung Keun Young from Atase Commercial of the South Korea Embassy), Bae Gun Yeol who is the director of KITECH (Korea Institute of Industrial Engineering) and the Director of KOTRA (Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency) Bok Dug Gyou. On the other hand, the event was witnessed by the Director of Access to Industrial Resources and International Promotion Azhar Fitri, who is also the General Directorate of International Resilience, Regional, and Industrial Access (KPAII) from the Ministry of Industry. Other attendees include ADIPI Directorate, General Directorate of Secretary and General Directorate of ILMATE (Metal, Machinery, Transportation and Electronics Industries).

In his welcoming speech. Prof. Tatacipta mentioned that establishment plans of a machinery development center began 10 years ago as a form of ITB’s awareness towards the capacity and quality expansion of manufacturing industries in Indonesia as years pass, especially by FTMD’s instructors.

According to Prof. Tatacipta, the advancement of manufacturing industries in any sector will halt without any development of autonomous machinery tools. This happens because these tools are the technological key used at the manufacturing industries themselves. One of the approaches to achieve this goal is to initiate the Oda Project for Establishment of Machine Tools Technical Center in Indonesia.

This collaboration was well-received by the Government of the Republic of Korea which was represented by the Embassy of The Republic of Korea to Indonesia. Chun Keun Young said that the South Korea government appreciates and supports FTMD ITB’s enthusiasm in this cooperation. From this collaboration, the Indonesia government received various equipment grants related to the machinery tools development. These devices will arrive in Indonesia and be shipped to the PPTI-ITB building.

Meanwhile, the Director of Industrial Resources Access and International Promotion as well as the Directorate General of Resilience, Regional, and International Industrial Access (KPAII) from the Ministry of Industry, Azhar Fitri, conveyed that this development center will help Indonesia’s manufacturing industries to compete globally and increase its national capability to fill in the shortages found at the global manufacturing chain. In the past few years, the development of Indonesia’s manufacturing industry started to be known around the world, yet the government hoped Indonesia could also enter the agriculture and medical devices industry in the future to fulfill both national and global needs.

This 5 million dollars or 70 million rupiah worth collaboration will launch for 3 years (2019-2021). However, the occurring COVID-19 pandemic results in the extension of the activities until December 2022. Besides receiving 7 NARA machinery tools, the Korean government plans to send 50 component sets of NARA machinery tools that are assembled and tested for its performances before being distributed. Furthermore, several important components will be made independently in Indonesia by involving many local manufacturing industries.

Source: Press Release from FTMD
Translator: Ruth Nathania (Environmental Engineering, 2019)