Indonesia Courts Tsinghua for AI Research at Bali SEZ

FTZ News: Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan invited Tsinghua University of Beijing to join artificial-intelligence research at the Kura Kura Bali special economic zone. He said he wanted the work to start this year. According to ANTARA News, Pandjaitan, chairman of the National Economic Council, spoke Sunday in Denpasar at the China-Southeast Asia Forum on Higher Education and Industry Cooperation 2026. The forum was held at the zone.

“I want to see Tsinghua University participating in AI research on this island in the very near term. If possible, I prefer the collaboration to begin this year,” he said. Pandjaitan has held several ministerial posts. “We want more than equipment. We want researchers, science, and an ecosystem for innovation,” he said. He asked Tsinghua to work with Indonesian partners on laboratories, research programs, research funding and scientific papers. He said an AI research center has already been set up in the zone, and he hoped the university would send talent and technical expertise to help develop it.

A partnership, he said, would matter to Indonesia’s shift toward a Government Technology, or GovTech, model, which he described as a way to make public services more efficient and transparent and to reduce corruption risks. President Prabowo Subianto has instructed the agencies involved to push that work, Pandjaitan said. He said Indonesia and China should not stop at industrial investment and technology transfer. He wanted joint research.

Kura Kura, he said, could host work on education, research and industry with China and other countries in Southeast Asia. He said Bali could be used to train people and carry out research, and that universities and companies should work together there. ANTARA did not quote Tsinghua, and it reported no agreement./.