VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has assured that the research and innovation development budget managed by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is sufficient.

She pointed out that the BRIN budget is also supported by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) on Wednesday.

"Next year, the indicative ceiling will slightly decrease to Rp5.9 trillion (around US$392 million). However, if BRIN needs more, there is around half a trillion rupiah from LPDP," she said.

This year, the government has allocated a budget of Rp6.66 trillion to BRIN. In 2022, the budget allocation was Rp6.46 trillion, with an absorption of Rp5.8 trillion.

As of June 2023, she informed that the realization of this year's budget allocation has only reached Rp1.7 trillion (around US$112.9 million).

"We hope that by the end of the year, other components like salaries can be absorbed, so we can ensure that the budget is sufficient," said Indrawati, who is the deputy chair of BRIN's steering board.

She assured that the government is always ready to meet the need for research funds.

"We continue to monitor the needs, from laboratory construction to equipment purchases. The head of BRIN said the equipment is expensive," she added.

However, she stated that the most important thing is that the equipment can be used by researchers.

In 2022, the government allocated Rp1.17 trillion (US$77.6 million) sourced from State Sharia Securities (SBSN) to build some BRIN facilities.

However, the budget realization only reached Rp957 billion (US$63.5 million).

This year, the government re-launched the development budget for BRIN with an initial ceiling of Rp240 billion, which was increased to Rp519 billion (around US$34.4 million). Until June, the budget realization had only reached Rp20 billion.

"There is still half a trillion rupiah (from the development budget) that must be absorbed within the next six months," Indrawati said. (Antaranews)