Daikin is a well-known Japanese manufacturer of air conditioners, specializing in air conditioners that were founded in 1924. Our main business domain is in the field of air conditioning and we are pleased to collaborate with the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia in organizing competency enhancement in the field of cooling and air conditioning engineering in vocational high schools (SMK) throughout Indonesia.
Daikin has been in Indonesia here since 1970 under a local distributor. And in 2012 Daikin Japan decided to be directly involved in business in Indonesia and thus PT Daikin Airconditioning Indonesia was established in April. So that by the end of 2018, we already have 13 branches and more than 1,100 dealers throughout Indonesia. The number of employees reached more than 650 people and sales of more than 3.5 trillion rupiah.
Indonesia is one of the fastest growing economies in ASEAN and is predicted to become the world's 4th largest economy by 2045. In the air conditioning sector, the penetration of the air conditioning market in this country is still below 25%. There are still 75% opportunities available for manufacturers, sellers, technicians and installers to benefit. With the 2 points above, the potential for air conditioning expansion in this country is huge.
When we talk about buying a home appliance product, we can actually go to the nearest electronics store to buy it, make a delivery, connect to a power source and start using it. No need for a third party to install it. However, this air conditioning business is unique, where we need to be installed by a qualified technician. In addition, with the growing development of commercial buildings in Indonesia such as offices, schools, hospitals, malls and others; Daikin has introduced new products suitable for these commercial applications. With this, technicians need to be retrained frequently to install this commercial air conditioner.
We believe that not only us, but all AC manufacturers in Indonesia are facing huge challenges in installation. These challenges are not only due to labor shortages, but also the quality of work. There are many cases where installers learn directly in the field without getting formal education from quality institutions or schools.
We at Daikin feel that it is our main mission to solve this problem. Because of this, since 2013 we have conducted a lot of training for field technicians. Last year we established the first National Training Center in North Jakarta with more than 2,000 square meters of space equipped with 3 classrooms, 3 practical rooms for various types of air conditioning products from residential air conditioners to commercial air conditioners and 1 welding room. This center has been registered as a place for competency examination by the Professional Certificate Institute for Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering (LSP-TPTU), complete with the most comprehensive training facilities in the field of air conditioning. Since the establishment of this center in July 2018, we have trained more than 10,000 participants at our National Training Center.
This year, we are expanding our training to SMK because schools are the main source for Indonesia's future. By working closely with the ministry and vocational school teachers, we want to prepare future generations of Indonesia, train them and prepare them for actual situations in the field that can handle various types of AC products confidently and professionally.