The Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has commented publicly on the lack of research and development activity in Indonesia.
According to a source quoted in the Jakarta Globe, LIPI claims that Indonesia needs an additional 200,000 researchers just to catch up with countries with established research programs. The article states that the number of researchers in Indonesia as compared with its population is one in 10,000. In comparison, Belarus is said to have 36 in 10,000.
Insufficient research and development activity in Indonesia is one way to explain the relatively small number of patent applications filed. In 2011, for example, 6,130 were filed in Indonesia (according to the DGIP) whereas according to WIPO statistics:
- 503,582 were filed in the USA
- 526,412 were filed in China; and
- 342,610 were filed in Japan.