REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Vice President Jusuf Kalla has urged the Ambon University of Pattimura (Unpatti) to develop the potential of local resources in Maluku province by replanting cloves and nutmegs. After a meeting with the vice president in Jakarta on Monday, the rector of Unpatti, Marthinus Johanes Saptenno, stated that Kalla wanted the university to encourage and develop the economy in Maluku.

"The vice president pointed out that the state university should strive to develop into an institution that can encourage economic growth, suggesting Unpatti to develop the natural resources that existed in Maluku, such as cloves and nutmeg," Saptenno remarked.

The natural resources, consisting of cloves, nutmeg, and eucalyptus in Maluku, have continued to deplete, and so it is necessary to replant the three main commodity crops.

The university, as a technology manager, is expected to develop innovation and technology, so that local people can produce good quality commodities. "Cloves, nutmeg, and eucalyptus trees are increasingly exhausted; therefore, Unpatti has to replant them," the Unpatti rector explained.

Hence, Pattimura University, along with the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, will develop joint technology to increase local potential production.

In the meantime, Director General of Innovation Reinforcement Jumain Appe remarked that it was encouraging the university to create a technology to process clove, nutmeg, and eucalyptus products into semi-finished or intermediate products.

"We know that 93 percent of raw materials and cosmetics are imported, whereas we have a lot of raw materials. Therefore, we need to develop technologies that can convert these natural resources from raw materials to 'intermediate products,'" he explained.

Appe hopes that the development of such technology can be continuous to enable people in Maluku to develop commodities that once brought benefits to their region.

"We have to do this processing in a sustainable way. We do not want to make Ambon develop a commodity that is not really good and cannot improve people's welfare," Appe pointed out.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika