Economics students of UGM succeeded to achieve the second and the third winner in a National Essay Competition, Development Economics Event (DEE), which was held at the branch office of Bank Indonesia in West Java on April 7. The essay theme was financial technology in which the participants were demanded to explore their capability in analyzing the trending issues regarding national economy, particularly the development of financial technology.
In the competition, the first team that consisted of Ulayya Gempur Tirani (Accountant student 2014), Alexander Michael (Economics student 2014), and Putu Arya Wigita (Economics student 2014) succeeded becoming the runner-up. Meanwhile, the other team who consisted of Ega Kurnia Yazid (Economics student 2015), Ahmad Zufar Robbani (Economics student 2015), and Handoko (Economics student 2015) achieved the third winner position.
Development Economic Event (DEE) is a yearly event which was held by Parahyangan University. One of their agenda is a national essay competition. This year, DEE collaborated with Bank Indonesia Fintech Office raised a theme on Financial Technology with various subthemes which were interesting to be discussed.
In order to be the participants, the students were required to write an essay based on their interest theme. One of UGM delegates, Ulayya, said her team chose a sub-theme regarding Fintech and the Banking Future. This sub-theme, according to Ulayya, was interesting to be explored due to the lack of society awareness on various online alternative payment methods which are relatively easier than the conventional banking credit.
“In the future, if people already know about financial technology, there will be disruptive effects for the conventional bank.
Therefore, we tried to analyze whether financial technology, particularly in peer to peer lending platform, will be a rival or friend for the conventional bank,” said Ulayya on Tuesday (18/4).
She admitted this essay was a challenge for her team. Fortunately, they were helped by their lecturers who master the theme.
“We had done many literature reviews and consulted to our lecturers who are experts in financial technology to finish our essay,” she added.
After essays had been submitted, dozens of essays from various regions in Indonesia were evaluated and the top 5 essays were selected to be presented in front of juries from Bank Indonesia.
“We submitted our essay on March 19, then the top 5 five teams were invited to present their essay in Bandung,” she said.
After the presentation, the first UGM team with their essay entitled Between Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform and Conventional Banking Credit: Rival or Friend? succeeded to be the runner-up and the second UGM team with their essay entitled Playing and Investing? A Study Case Based on Financial Technology achieved the third winner position.