Prof Noer Azam Achsani Inaugurated as the Head of Indonesia Economics Graduates Organization (ISEI) 2018
Dean of Business School (SB) of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), Prof Dr Ir Noer Azam Achsani was inaugurated as the Head of Indonesia Economics Graduates Organization (ISEI) 2018 during the event Transformative Dialogue in C Building, SB IPB, Gunung Gede campus, Bogor (10/2). Dozens of ISEI Bogor Raya region committees were also inaugurated during the same occasion.
According to him, there is an inequality of economy between urban and rural areas. This inequality is still an unsolved problem. Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) noted that the Gini Ratio of Indonesians only decreased by 0,001 percent from 0,394 percent by September 2016, resulting the ratio to be at 0,393 by March 2017. The Gini Ratio in urban areas decreased from 0,409 (September 2016) to 0,407 (March 2017). However, the Gini Ratio in rural areas increased from 0,316 (September 2016) to 0,320 (March 2017).
"The results of the research done by The SMERU Research Institute with the support from Tifa Foundation found that the villages in Indonesia are becoming more prosperous, but the inequality worsens. In addition to that, there was also found the change in economical structure, whereas one of the most prominent findings is that there is an ongoing lack of agriculture sector contribution, especially when compared to industry and service sectors. The transition caused the shifting of workers quantity, job sectors, and work places of rural areas inhabitants," he said.
In addition to that, the study done by INFID shows that work opportunity is one of the factor determining this inequality. Youths and women are the most vulnerable groups in the current system of recruitment. The biggest work force, who are still young and less educated, do not match with what the industry demands. The industry demands workers who have certain skills and competence.
Because of that, currently SB IPB is developing a development model to overcome this inequality by cooperating with partners, such as academicians, banks, and small medium enterprise (SME) community. This model and concept has been widely adopted by ASEAN countries.
"Bank has a role to serve the clients by giving facilities that SME needs. SB IPB build the concept to conduct assistance towards the SME in managerial aspect. This assistance will be done offline and online, so it will enable SME to be involved in digital marketing. This concept has been running since 2011 by giving assistance in marketing management and operational management. The prevailing SME will graduate. This will give an enormous impact," he said.
According to him, this concept has not involved the government. In the future, Mandiri SB IPB SME Center will be established, which will also work with the Bogor regional government. The involvement of government will ease the SME in applying for business permission and assistance in marketing.
"We (universities) think, this concept can be a teaching lab to facilitate professors' knowledge development, to be an implementation platform for students in applying the theory they learn in class, to improve students' soft skills, to facilitate internship places and to get cases to be used as materials for students' final project," He added. (Ard)
