Debriefing of UGM Post Graduate Program Graduation Event period October 2018 was festive and full of enthusiasm. The second floor of Grha Sabha Pramana was full of graduates who had finished their post-graduate studies. This debriefing purpose was to prepare alumni on developing their professional career and to push them to create creative ideas to build the nation and the country. Moreover, along with this routine debriefing, this is expected to maintain effective communication between students and alumni who already contribute in various fields in the society.
At 08.15 WIB, the debriefing was opened by the host and went straight to the talkshow session by the first speaker, brought up the theme “Trade and Marine Resources Potential of Indonesia in Global Market”, UGM invited a trade expertise, Mr. Anton Mart Irianto as Director of Internal Trade Affairs PT. Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia (Persero).
Mr. Anton explained about the possibility of micro industries (UKM) Indonesia to enter global market in the middle of ASEAN Economic Community. UKM could be a good opportunity to be able to sell produce from the community as Indonesia is geographically advantageous for any produce to be cultivated. “But, the problem is, UKM Indonesia is lack of competitive advantage, such as product innovation, and so others. Especially in the packaging matter, UKM Indonesia has lost its competitiveness in ASEAN region.” said the alumnus of Faculty of Economics and Business UGM at Grha Sabha Pramana, (23/10/2018). “I want the graduates of UGM Master degree and Doctoral degree to also think about this matter, so further, Indonesia could be more confident to compete with other ASEAN countries, especially the packaging.” he added. At the end of the talkshow, Mr. Anton instructed the graduates to not forget to be KAGAMA, either as member or committee.
On this event, UGM also invited an expertise in ocean resources potential, Mr. Risyanto Suanda, President Director of Perum Perikanan Indonesia to be speaker on the next session. Mr. Risyanto started the talkshow by telling his experience and reason why he chose to study in Fishery Department of UGM. “I used to live in coastal area since I was a child, so when I applied to college, I asked if there is fishery major in UGM, then I applied and I got in without any tests. While I studied in Jogja, I learned a lot about life values and how to make network which turned out very useful after I graduated.” said the alumnus of Fishery major in Faculty of Agriculture UGM.
Mr. Risyanto said that Perum Perikanan Indonesia is the best and the biggest fishery state owned enterprise. The business core of Perum Perikanan Indonesia is to manage the only fishery port in Indonesia for 28 years. Indonesia is the biggest island country in the world so it has tremendous marine resource, but with this high marine potential, it does not make us gain wealth automatically. All of this marine potential could make us gain wealth if we are able to make use of it optimally. Some steps were already done to achieve it, for example, we still need to handle our human resources, consistency from all parties, and some fishery stakeholders have to cooperate with each other to be able to develop fishery sector.
Similar to trade sector which already delivered by Mr. Anton, fishery sector also has problem. With huge amount of fish in Indonesia, fish produce is sold abroad in raw form with cheap price, then processed to become processed food such as fish ball, fish fillet, and so others, and sold to Indonesia with higher price afterwards. Post Graduates are expected to contribute to solve this problem so Indonesia fish produce could bring welfare to its own local community.
After presentation from these two speakers, Mrs. drg. Dian Nirmalasari, as moderator, held discussion session to two graduates. The diversity of Indonesia could be seen when two graduates, Ratna from Kalimantan and Fridrik from east of Indonesia, asked with enthusiasm to build and develop their hometown after graduate from UGM Post Graduate Program (Hubungan Alumni UGM/Irzha; Foto: Buyung)