Remembering holds key to prosperity

Conventional wisdom suggests that successful nations are those that learn. Governments establish research institutes, universities churn out new knowledge, industries innovate, and public institutions continuously enhance their capabilities. Learning is the key reason why some countries prosper while others struggle.

Yet, learning alone doesn't lead to long-term national development.

A country without institutional memory suffers from collective amnesia. Political transitions often bring shifts in priorities. Every new administration introduces another reform while abandoning previous ones. Every crisis generates fresh initiatives, yet few become lasting capabilities. Progress becomes cyclical rather than cumulative.

China offers a striking contrast.

Much has been written about China's phenomenal growth driven by industrial policy, infrastructure, manufacturing and innovation. Though correct, these observations overlook a deeper institutional advantage that connects them all: China's remarkable capacity to preserve and accumulate policy experience.

In China, reforms sometimes begin in provinces and cities, where new ideas are tested under real-world conditions. Successful initiatives are refined, codified and gradually expanded across the country, while unsuccessful ones quietly end without becoming permanent policy. This is more than experimentation. It is building institutional memory.

Shenzhen illustrates the point. Known as China's first Special Economic Zone, it became a place where new policies could be tested before being expanded nationwide. The city's lasting contribution was not simply its economic success, but the experience it left behind for others to build on.

The same pattern was evident in China's campaign to eliminate extreme poverty. Success depended not only on financial resources but also on the government's ability to collect, organize and continuously update knowledge through village-level databases, performance monitoring and policy evaluation.

Information didn't just fill up reports; it was embedded within decision-making. Every intervention strengthened the State's ability to respond more effectively the next time.

China's rapid progress in artificial intelligence reflects the same principle. AI systems improve by learning from accumulated data. Data functions as memory. Governments, too, become more capable when they preserve what experience has taught them instead of starting over with each new challenge.

This also explains why many developing countries go through perpetual reform. New ideas emerge, pilot projects show promise and local innovations flourish. But when the leadership changes, institutions are reorganized, priorities shift, and much of the accumulated knowledge disappears along with the individuals who created it.

The problem is often not a lack of innovation, but institutional amnesia.

This is one of the most underestimated obstacles to development. Much of the debate around development centers on corruption, public finances or infrastructure. Equally important, though far less discussed, is whether institutions can retain and transfer knowledge across political and administrative generations.

From this perspective, good governance is not measured simply by how many new policies governments introduce. It is measured by how effectively governments transform experience into lasting institutional capability.

Institutional memory is not gained automatically. It is built by systematic evaluation, professional civil services, integrated knowledge systems, reliable documentation, standardized procedures and organizations that reward learning rather than constant reinvention. Most important, it requires continuity — the ability of institutions to preserve valuable knowledge regardless of political change.

This insight has an important message for Indonesia. The country is not short of ideas and outstanding pilot projects, yet too many of these achievements remain isolated success stories.

Indonesia's next development challenge, therefore, is not simply to become a nation that learns. It is to become a nation that remembers.

The country needs more than research funding, innovation hubs, or ambitious reform agendas. It needs a National Memory System, an institutional architecture that systematically captures policy lessons, evaluates public innovations, preserves successful practices and ensures that every generation of public institutions inherits the knowledge accumulated by the previous one.

Such a system would transform isolated innovations into national capabilities, allowing successful local experiments to become national standards. It would enable evidence, not political cycles, to shape long-term development.

The 21st century will reward nations that can adapt continuously. Adaptation, however, depends not only on learning faster but also on remembering better. Knowledge without memory produces repetition. Memory without learning produces stagnation. Sustainable development requires both.

One of the most important lessons from China is not that it learns faster than other nations, but that it has built institutions capable of remembering what the country has learned. This is the next frontier of development for Indonesia. Nations do not become great by generating new ideas, but by ensuring that good ideas are never forgotten.

The author is an associate professor at the University of Lampung, Indonesia, and a researcher in public policy and crisis governance.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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