Dr. Mochtar Riady: ?Building a Nation and a Country through Education?

Grand Launching of Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) Medan which was held in Hotel Aryaduta, Saturday, 26^th April, 2014 and attended by 540 participants including the chairman of foundation, parents of prospective students, prospective students, principal of senior high school, local government as well as general public.

In this event, Dr. Mochtar Riady as the founder of Lippo Group came as the main speaker who brought the theme of Indonesia, Asia, and 20 years of prospect ahead. According to him, even though Indonesia often gets a compliment of their economic growth being well, however in fact Indonesia is still lacking in its economic sector. Indonesia?s dependence on import goods as well as infrastructure problem are one of the causes.

?Different to Tiongkok which has industries from lighter up to heavier as well as supporting infrastructure, so that they are able to press production and distribution charges, that is why all the prices of the goods from Tiongkok are cheaper,? said Mochtar. He also added that Indonesian infrastructure is still lacking right now. Only Java and Sumatera that have railways for trains, however Kalimantan dan Sulawesi do not have railways for trains at all. This is why production charges in Indonesia are expensive.

This infrastructure-building also needs imported materials, where the charges being expanded are not quite small. ?All of these factors cause high prices for industries, this is why many companies are closed and moved into other developed countries. Furthermore, this is why Infrastructure-building in Indonesia is important to support the economy,? said Mochtar.       

Indonesia will not be a developed country if they do not make an industry revolution. Mochtar also mention that Indonesia has the opportunity to make an industry revolution. Dr. Mochtar Riady?s thoughts are based on his life principal that he shared to the audience at the time. ?In life, we have to contribute in building a country and a nation by increasing economic growth, investment, creating labor, and in the same time, participate in making social welfare, and we get this done through education,? that was the statement of Dr. Mochtar Riady. As a form of commitment to support education world, in this event, he gave away 12 scholarships for the best students in Medan. (au/kyc)