Earlier today I joined the first ever Indonesia Millennial Summit (IMS), held by IDN Times. IMS 2019 leaving a very good new knowledge to me hence…I would like to share my summary from the session. Hopefully it can be beneficial for you too! On a separate note, we got two coffee breaks and one big buffet Kempinski western lunch (re: creamy salmon and seafood lasagna). Food.was.worth.it.
Anyway, this is my first time joining an independent event that involving a lot of key speakers, ranging from athlete, politicians to business owner and artist.This event covered a lot of discussion in which I didn’t attend all the session unfortunately (because you have to choose between the three stages), but I believe the highlight will be similar. Just an additional info, IDN Times has published its report about Millennials based on IDN Research Institute in https://www.idntimes.com/indonesiamillennialreport2019 . All the findings and solution are well elaborated in the deck, so I won’t repeat what’s in the report (you can check it by yourself) rather I would say what’s on my mind.
Millennials range from 20–35 years old. Honestly speaking, I am not a fan of politics nor following every single news thread in this country, though I am part of the young generation. I love my country for sure, but I found it as an eye opener when I heard this:
Indonesia is facing a bonus demographic this year, where productive people > unproductive people — which is a good thing as we Millennials are now the key to grow Indonesia. But, in the next 26 years , Indonesia will face ageing demography where the situation will be in contrary. To ensure that we are rich enough to provide a good living standard to all the citizens (jangan tua sebelum kaya gitu loh) or to escape the middle income trap, Indonesia has to grow its GDP from 4000 USD to 12000 USD in 2045. Do you think its possible?
Pak Muhammad Luthfi, former Trade Minister of Indonesia mentioned in his talk “Building Brand with Legacy” that there are two ways to get out of the middle income trap. The first is by building new infrastructures and second is by delivering wider and proper education to all Indonesians. But how to achieve that?
New Infrastructures
Infrastructures are basically perceived as a physical, concrete buildings that have the purpose to serve people, say it in health, education and other services. But, I would like to say that its more than that. For example, digital is the new infrastructure. Its not physical per se, but its clearly a tangible platform where people can do economy transaction.
There is no better time to be alive than today — especially as Millennials, especially in Indonesia. Technology is moving up so fast, online channel is rising everywhere, paying things has never been this easy and creating a new business has never been this attractive.
Entrepreneurship is one of the key engine to grow the economy. A lot of people ask Sandiaga Uno, the former vice Governor of Jakarta on how to be accepted in a job. He said, “Why you bother? Go create a new job!”. With the success of 4 unicorns: Tokopedia, Gojek, Bukalapak and Traveloka, its surely a green light for every people with entrepreneurship aspiration to be brave and create impact at scale (loving the Gojek slogan btw!). For example, one of the interesting issue is that there is no (or very limited) digital based platform to help streamlining the process of selling commodity products like chili, onion, garlic and rice. Thus, by creating impactful solution to the problems that Indonesians are facing today and bringing it with scale, realize it or not, entrepreneurs have developed a new and better infrastructures for people that then hopefully could boost the economy growth.
On the other hand, as common people say, technology comes with a double edge sword. Jusuf Kalla, vice president of Indonesia, mentioned on his speech during the opening ceremony that we need to remember on balancing between the development of the system and the development of the human resources. In other word, how to humanize technology. For example, with all the automatic highways access using e-toll, people (or government or anyone behind this initiative) needs to think on: if its all being automated, then where would the former officer go after the new system being implemented? We don’t want to increase technology development but also have more unemployed people (think about the mid-low class income).
Back to the common definition of infrastructure, Cipta Ciputra (GM of Ciputra Land) said that Indonesia needs to revisit the bureaucracy of building a new place like shortening the time to get permission letter or IMB. Other thing that worth to note is the importance of collaboration. Pak Muhammad Luthfi mentioned that our car export is increasing, where Japan invest higher in Indonesia than in Japan itself. More factories are build in Indonesia, in which more labor to be hired and more income to the country. With clearer bureaucracy from within and in the spirit of collaboration with others, they will definitely help the industries to have faster infrastructure development evenly distributed across the archipelago.
Education
I am a big fan of education and truly believes that education is the core of everything. Giving better education remains a key focus for Indonesia. Interestingly, from the report of Lowy Institute:
“Indonesia has had a great success in getting their children to school and keeping them there, at least until the end of the compulsory basic education period. However, it has had much less success in ensuring that these children receive an education”
In other word, high quantity but still needs to improve on the quality.
As a Millennial, Maudy Ayunda, the famous Indonesia singer, shared on her talk “Leveraging Fame for Social Good” that she has started a mentorship and scholarship programme early this year (well, January has not end yet!). This inspires me that as a 25yo, she could breakthrough the mediocrity by providing support in education by empowering critical thinking to students who just entered college. Yes, of course she is famous and has the capability to do that, but this shows that you can be young enough to make an impact for a better education around you. One of my friend spend her Saturday to go volunteering with her boyfriend (dating and teaching, such a mutual benefit), to teach math and reading to orphanage.
Yet, as much as we would like to develop others to achieve better education, Mari Elka Pangestu, former Minister of Trade, shares that she, when in our age, was faced to a tough decision on whether to follow her PhD or not. Her mother refused to allow her because well, at that time, she was afraid that her daughter cannot find a husband, worry that she is too clever. But Mari’s father insist that she should go and pursue a higher level of education. She finally followed her Dad’s advice and came home as the first PhD Woman in Economy subject in Indonesia — look where she is now though, once filled in the Indonesia cabinet!. So this is a note for myself and also to others, pursue higher degree of education. Don’t settle…..yet.
Another highlighted issue in Indonesia is about health education. Stunting is the issue that Indonesia would like solve. Based on WHO, stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psycho social stimulation. There is 37% Indonesian child under 5yo experience stunting, across the nation. Moreover, Indonesia sits at the rank of 64 out of 65 in terms of intellectual level , based on the study in 2012 by OECD PISA (please google it if you ask what is that). The impact of this is that it could reduce the income per capita, increase the inequality between social demographic and of course hinder the economic growth.
In order to solve this, Indonesia government put effort in educating new moms and promoting campaign of the importance of having a proper meal. Axton Salim, the GM of PT. Indofood, mentioned that nutrition is one of its main focus in the next following years. This means that educating people about health is the job of everyone, including the food and beverage manufactures.
So that’s my key takeaways. Wow, what a long summary!
To wrap up, with my own point of view:
Indonesia is heading on the right direction. At least, it should be.
We, the millennials, have power to grow the economy. And yes, not everyone has the aspiration to give impact to the country and I honestly think that I am also still far from the ideal millennial like building big tech companies or joining the government and create a better policy for the people.
But, as an individual, and a note to myself as well, we have the power to be better. We have the power, to do what we want to do.
Next paragraph will sound judgy (not lying, I am judging you though while in parallel also judging myself), but if everyone waits to be a saint to give advice, no one will give advice, right? So, here it goes:
We can’t be lazy, not now. We can’t spend time too much hanging out complaining about work and gossiping about people. Or doing too many unimportant tweet war. Or keep commenting in someone instagram thinking why they have better life than ours (hints: they don’t).
We need to start spending time to discuss better issue and better problem. Deliver the best in everything we do. Coach our new joiners in the office with 100% sincere effort. Use more local brands. Support small business. Start that business we have been thinking since college. Pursue our master degree. Or even our PhD degree. Give back to the community. Start small, but now.
Be a better person. Be a better us. Be a better you.
In 2045, Indonesia needs to achieve GDP of 12,000 USD. Possible or not, the decision is ours.
