Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

The Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada in collaboration with IRSA (Indonesian Regional Science Association) held the 16th Indonesian Regional Science Association International Conference. This annual conference is held virtually via Zoom on 12-13 July 2021. The conference is IRSA's premier annual event that promotes research advancement across the country. This conference will facilitate open discussion, transfer of knowledge, policy formulation strategies, and networking among scholars and policy makers. The annual IRSA conference has been attended by a large number of academics and policy makers from various institutions in Indonesia. IRSA does not only play a role in the academic environment through research and publications, but also contributes to research-based regional development policies nationally, regionally and locally. The theme of the 16th IRSA conference is Institutions, Human Capital, and Development.

This conference was attended by the President of IRSA, Dean of FEB UGM, Vice Dean of FEB UGM, Lecturers and Organizers, as well as Participants from academics and practitioners. Previously, on Saturday (10/07/2021) and Sunday (11/07/2021) a Pre-Conference Seminar was held, namely the delivery of a discussion on Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) by ANU Project Indonesia and the University of Canberra, Introduction to Choice Modeling for Valuation Economics by EEI-Indonesia, and Introduction to Online Survey Design by J-PAL Southeast Asia.

Dr. Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo, as Co-Chair of the IRSA Local Committee, gave the opening remarks to start the conference.

"Welcome to 16 IRSA International 2021 participants who are very enthusiastic. We are very proud to be able to facilitate ideas, share knowledge, learning and networking. Before we report on the progress of the conference, we would like to thank the medical personnel, volunteers, and communities throughout Indonesia who are working very hard to fight the Covid-19 Pandemic. We are very proud of you, we hope you are healthy and safe", said Gumilang.

Gumilang said that academics had a significant contribution to reproducing evidence, providing timely recommendations to policymakers to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, the theme of this year's IRSA Conference is Institution, Human Capital, and Development. With topics of economic growth, cultural agriculture, natural resources, rural institutional development, focus on long-term results, and more.

"The conference received 334 abstracts from scholars across Indonesia and international scholars. We received 217 for the oral presentation and 65 abstracts for the video. There are more than 400 participants in this conference," said Gumilang.

Next, is the welcoming remarks and thanks from Dr. Evi Noor Afifah, to the organizers and participants.

"I would especially like to thank the IRSA management, the organizing team, the dean's office and faculties, and the speakers. We also want to thank our sponsors, as well as our partners ANU Project, EEI-Indonesia, JPAL Southeast Asia, Australia Government, Knowledge Sector Initiative, and other sponsors including the Fiscal Policy Agency Ministry of Finance, Prospera, LPEM FEB UI, CEDS Unpad, TNP2K, IBER, and Kompak", she said.

Dr. Eko Suwardi, Dean of FEB UGM, also expressed his gratitude in his speech. He said that FEB UGM was very grateful for the opportunity to host IRSA in Yogyakarta.

"I believe that this conference will be relevant to the current situation that all countries in the world are facing the same pandemic problem. Of course we have different capacities in terms of institutions and human resources, and also the economy, therefore I believe this international conference can be a facilitator to discuss various things. FEB UGM would like to thank all speakers, participants, sponsors, and organizing committee," said Eko Suwardi.

IRSA President, Prof. Arief Anshory Yusuf said that this conference is a form of IRSA's persistence as a community that is fighting for Indonesian citizens in the health economic crisis.

"The crisis may have separated all aspects of our lives, but we have proven that it will not destroy our passion to create a country with a better scientific environment, to do so is the urgency to make it better, and this conference I see is part of it," explained Arief Anshory.
The next session was plenary session 1 by Prof. Ari Kuncoro, Chancellor of the University of Indonesia (UI), which discussed the topic of increasing competitiveness in vocational and higher education.

"If we look at macro data, Indonesian industry started to grow rapidly in the late 60s and made this country a significant industrial exporter in the 90s, the share of output in the manufacturing sector in the late 90s, unfortunately the crisis in the 99s stopped that progress," he explained.

Kuncoro said that currently the labor market values ​​social skills or soft skills when the economy shifts towards services, values ​​critical thinking and creativity in addition to mastering technology, to develop a strong and competitive manufacturing sector. Therefore, according to him, if Indonesia wants to remain competitive in the digital era, increasing supply-side productivity will require improving not only infrastructure but also human resources.

In relation to education, according to Kuncoro, if education is a signal for worker productivity, then Indonesia needs to improve the quality of its workforce. Ongoing changes in economic structure, towards the dominance of the modern sector and advanced technology of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The shift to service and high-tech industries has created a demand in the labor market for more complex skills.

"To answer this challenge, Indonesia must not only expand access to education but also ensure that the education provided is in line with the changing demands of the labor market," he explained.

Therefore, Kuncoro believes that the Indonesian education policy framework to support the improvement of human quality should focus on five areas, namely access to education, quality of education, synergy between government, industry, civil society and educational institutions, industrial linkages, and incentives.

"Indonesia needs to develop a more adaptive, flexible and dynamic curriculum that allows students to study outside their fields and gain interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary insights," he said.

"One of the adaptive curriculum is that contained in the Kampus Merdeka Reform, which is a policy to deregulate the higher education system which is highly regulated in Indonesia, aiming to create a learning environment that is less rigid, more innovative and more in line with the needs of each university," he added.

The last session in the plenary session was a presentation from Dr. Ariane Utomo from the University of Melbourne, discussing the topic of "Love, Marriage, and Change Transition in the Family".

"Today, the discipline of demography in economic development more broadly in Indonesia has been dominated by the conventional approach, namely looking at the time of entry of the first marriage. The level of education of women and occupation as determining the age of first marriage is understandable given the idea and effort to determine fertility outcomes, but I think there is more to demography than just counting births, deaths and migrations", she explained.

With the complex social nature of social change, according to Utomo, what needs to be considered first is the expansion of education in the last decade, how young people in Indonesia have spent a long time in school thus delaying entry into the labor market and marriage. Then, there are socio-political changes, and the emergence of globalization and natural changes.

"A series of interrelated dimensions of socio-economic change in Indonesia have created certainty and contradiction, which are reflected in changes in the pattern of marriage and family formation," she said.

Utomo argues that there are so many important things to examine how changes in the nature of work, job insecurity, and economic vulnerability can affect changes in marriage and family in the world.

"I am here to invite you to collaborate and think about the research agenda. how we view marriage as a window to understand the very complex changes that are taking place around us", she concluded.

Reportage: Sony Budiarso/Kirana Lalita Pristy