Bandung is well known for its Education, Textile, Aerospace, Pharmaceutical, High-Tech, and Transportation Functions. It serves as the Capital of Jawa Berat (West Java) State, one of the most prosperous in the country since Jakarta is located within its borders. Many federal government and state owned partial liability (PT) businesses are located in Bandung, many of them relocated during the Dutch attempt to relocate the capital. Additionally, the surrounding country-side is mostly cultivated in rice with the mountain slope plantations of tea, rubber, coffee, and cinchona. The textile industry initially grew because of important textile research in Bandung, especially at the Institute for Research and Development of the Textile Industry. Thanks to textile research and many firms, Bandung is the textile center of Indonesia. The Aerospace industry developed in Bandung to take advantage of the strong technical schools and the military headquarters there (former HQ of the colonial Dutch Army).

Bandung High Tech Industry and the Bandung High Tech Valley

Bandung currently has around 50 software houses of various sizes, and has been dubbed Bandung High-Tech Valley (BHTV). Some of the larger software companies in Bandung are Optima Infocitra Universal, Trabas, Nusantara System International and Zantara Lintas Informasi. Optima is now involved in developing software for e-government, amongst other things. CEO of Optima, Didi Apriadi, said that the company, which was established in 1997, generates revenues of around US$5 million a year. BHTV was launched in 1996, before Indonesia's economic crisis. The government has long hoped to develop BHTV into the country's very own Silicon Valley. Bandung was selected for development partly because of its proximity to a number of technical institutes, such as the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the University of Parahiyangan, and the Technology School of Telecommunications. Bandung also has a number of nearby research centers, such as the Telkom Research Center, the ITB Research Center, the Indonesian Science Institute, and the National Electronics Institute. Several large IT-related companies, such as Telkom, IPTN (aircraft), INTI, CMI and Telnic are also in Bandung. A recent study forecast that revenues from the BHTV will reach around US$4 million in 2001, US$30 million in 2002, and US$300 million in 2005. Hopes are that Bandung will become a world-class IT center by 2025. (paragraph from Nikkei Electronics Asia)

In 1937, a local businessman and some Indonesian youths built an aircraft at a workshop located in Jl. Pasirkaliki, Bandung. They were able to fly it to the Netherlands and to China. This effort later grew into a private company that was nationalised after independence. During the last 24 years of its establishment, IPTN had been successfully capable of transferring sophisticated and latest aviation technology, mostly from Western Hemisphere, to Indonesians. Lately its name was changed from IPTN to Indonesian Aerospace, seemingly in an effort to make it more appealing to foreign investors (Japanese investors own a large portion of this company)

Bio Farma is the only vaccine and sera manufacturer in Indonesia. Established in August 6, 1890, under the name of Parc Vaccinogen or Lands Koepok - subsequently known as the Pasteur Institute. At that time the company occupied the area of Weltevreden army hospital in Batavia, now Jakarta. The company moved to Bandung in 1923. In 1978 it became a limited company known as PT Bio Farma (Persero).