Minister Erick prohibits SOEs to build universities and mentions ‘little kings’ in SOEs

Last updated on May 7th, 2021 at 07:12 am

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Erick Thohir, said that in the future there would be no more SOEs to build universities. He invited SOEs to cooperate with existing universities. Because the university currently has many discoveries that are not contained.

“Yesterday I said that there was no SOE that wanted to make a university, but we and the university did the RnD together because that is why there are many discoveries at universities,” Minister Erick said through Video Conference, Jakarta, Wednesday, May 20.

The prohibition of establishing a university is intended so that SOEs do not compete with universities. But it can jointly form a good ecosystem in supporting the procurement of various cutting-edge technologies in the country.

“Yesterday I said that there was no SOE that wanted to make a university, but we and the university did the RnD together because that is why there are many discoveries at universities,” Minister Erick said

“So we cannot become competitors but support each other’s ecosystems. Then the competition gap in SOEs now, we standardize talent development so there is a rotation of the assignment program,” Erick explained.

Learning from the coronavirus pandemic at this time, cooperation between SOEs and universities is also very important. Because so far there have been many dual roles of SOEs in conducting business even though they should have collaborated with universities.

“The health industry in SOEs all overlaps and their alignments are not clear. This is what we want to change in the future that RND, Indofarma, Kimia Farma, working with universities and research institutions,” he said.

Moreover, Erick Thohir said SOEs must be able to build a good business ecosystem, not just synergy, between SOEs, Regional-Owned Enterprises (BUMDs), Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes), or the private sector. Although there is no doubt that synergy between companies brings goodness, but Erick rate, this should not be an ‘ivory tower’. SOE business clusters must be tightened and linked to interrelated business sectors to avoid overlapping and chaotic business processes.

Furthermore, Erick also stressed the importance of determining leadership seats in each line of SOEs. He asked for the determination of leadership seats in each line of SOEs deemed not to be merely placement, but must be maintained strategically. This is to avoid the existence of ‘little kings’ or unscrupulous bosses in SOEs who will certainly dig a gap to do their interests.

“In determining leadership in SOEs sometimes we only place people, but they are not strategically guarded. Instead of being damaged, what is this matter, this is dangerous, so there are small kings or rogue elements,” he said.

For that reason, going forward, Erick Thohir’s focus will not be solely on the placement of leadership chairs but also ensures the business model in each cluster becomes more efficient and effective because each business line will be connected to the supply chain.

“Previously there were only 12, all of which were connected to the supply chain, for example, the cement industry must be close to the work industry, the pharmaceutical industry must be close to the hospital industry, the food industry must be close to the fertilizer industry,” he explained.

Thus, connections between SOE clusters whose fields are interconnected will build supply chains so that the business ecosystem is good, as well as its impact on the community.

For example, the cement industry is connected with the work industry (construction), then the pharmaceutical industry with the hospital industry, the food industry with the fertilizer industry, and so forth. Thus, the supply chain will be formed.

“Now we are making a good supply chain but still building ecosystems for the community,” he concluded.