If the Minister of Communications and Informatics, Tifatul Sembiring makes another inquiry to Research In Motion (RIM) about its investment in Indonesia, RIM will have a definite answer this time. RIM has invested more than USD 5 million to build an Innovation Center in Indonesia. The facility, set to open this year, will be built in collaboration with Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
It was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between RIM and ITB which was done on Wednesday, May 22, 2012 at ITB. This memorandum is a follow-up to the agreement between ITB and RIM made in early March.
The Innovation Centre will be a place for RIM and ITB to encourage ITB students to create innovative mobile applications, as well as teaching them how to market it. In addition, also listed in the MoU that the funding of this investment will also be used for scholarships, various seminars and conferences as well as other initiatives aimed at triggering the development of innovative applications and entrepreneurial spirit of ITB students.
In a press release, Hastings Singh, RIM Southeast Asia Managing Director, explained the reasons behind selecting ITB as the first university in Indonesia to host RIM’s Innovation Center. He said that ITB is a prestigious Indonesian institution and a good partner for RIM to cooperate in a progressive initiative.
Although Indonesia is known as the number one market for RIM’s BlackBerry smartphone [it’s not -Ed], RIM has repeatedly rejected the government’s request to build a data center in Indonesia. Instead, RIM built its factory in Malaysia, chose Singapore as network aggregator and placed its server in India. But when asked to choose among the four investment options, my first choice will be the innovation center. Innovation center offers not only an investment in funds but also allows the transfer of both technical and non-technical knowledge from RIM to ITB students.
ITB must be able to maximize the cooperation, exploring as much benefit from the innovation center as possible. Hopefully, this innovation center will be the first, meaning that RIM will open other innovation centers in other universities in Indonesia.