VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia and Japan agreed to collaborate in the development and operation of a 100 Gigabyte per second (Gbps) network for research and education sectors by inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU) here on Wednesday evening.

The cooperation will be conducted by Indonesia’s state college Brawijaya University (UB) and the Indonesia Research and Education Network (IdREN) with Japan’s Arterial Research and Educational Network in the Asia Pacific (ARENA-PAC).

The signing of the agreement was witnessed by Indonesian Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny G. Plate and Minister for Digital Affairs of Japan Kono Taro.

Ambassador of Indonesia to Japan and Micronesia Heri Akhmadi as well as Secretary of the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology at the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry Tjitjik Srie Tjahjandarie were also present at the occasion.

The ARENA-PAC’s 100 Gbps network will connect IdREN with UB as the gateway, through Guam to Tokyo and also to several other locations.

The opening of this network is a big leap for advancing Indonesia since its speed is 100 times higher than the existing network connecting Indonesia to the current global research and education network with the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) as the gateway.

Through development of the new network, more than 82 universities and various research institutions, which are currently connected to IdREN, will be able to exchange data faster with their counterparts abroad as well as have private facilities to conduct experiment on the network.

"I believe this high-speed network will provide opportunities to implement the Freedom in Learning and Campus (MBKM) activities," the rector of UB, Widodo, remarked.

Meanwhile, Chairperson of IdREN Achmad Affandi has said that connecting the IdREN network with the ARENA-PAC’s 100 Gbps network will improve domestic education and research infrastructure as well as expedite cooperation in the two sectors at the regional and global levels.

"Students, researchers, and lecturers will have access to high-definition data, cloud, AI (artificial intelligent) computing and multimedia communications, as well as collaboration opportunities with global universities or research institutions," he affirmed.

Co-Director of ARENA-PAC Jun Murai stated that development of the 100 Gbps network with IdREN will create a great milestone for the future, not only for Indonesia but also for the Asia-Pacific region.

He also expects that the network will contribute to cooperation between Indonesia and other Asia-Pacific countries as well as other nations in the world to create a better future. (Antaranews)