To learn to overcome crisis, seven German Parliament members visited UGM. The members of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union joining the Parliamentary Group led by Volker Kauder accepted by Rector, Prof. Ir. Sudjarwadi, M. Eng., Ph.D, on Monday (23/8). "I am aware that university is a place where attention is paid to the developments in society to be learned, and if possible to be made beneficial for the progress of society itself," said Volker Kauder during a discussion with the university leaders in the Multimedia Room.
He said that Germans in the last two years experienced a crisis that has never happened before. He realized that in the context of economic science there was indeed certain cycles triggered by conjunctures from the outside that can affect economic performance.
In his view, the Bank and Capital Markets should be formed by the concentration of real economic development. If those financial institutions that have been running for many years engaged in activities outside the real activity, what happens next is bankruptcy as happened in America.
When a company has a poor economic activity, said Volker, automatically it experiences bankruptcy; but because companies are related to each other, a company bankruptcy would drag another company to bankruptcy as well. "With such conditions, the government would be forced to provide assistance in terms of tax money to stabilize the economy. Therefore, in this context we can not learn from our own country, but we need to learn from any country. There is possibility to learn from the Asia-Pacific region countries," said Volker.
What is experienced and can be learned from this region is expected to be able to prevent the crisis recurrence. Given Indonesia’s success in overcoming crisis in 1997, Germany was eager to get the experience.
"Indonesia had proven and able to pass it. Therefore, for us it’s very important to study Indonesia’s experience. As we know that Indonesia is a member of the G-20 and the group is in the process of contemplating a scheme of how to evade cases related to the collapse of stock exchanges like what happened previously," said Volker.
Responding to this desire of the German Parliament, the Rector said the background of the general conditions in Indonesia these days. First, the people of Indonesia in carrying out their economic activities are characterized by the extended family culture, in which a small business is conducted between family members or family.
"Consequently, during difficult conditions, they help each other. In general, people who have no income can still get food from relatives or neighbors nearby," said Rector.
Second, he said that the Indonesian nation currently has approximately 18% of well-educated human resources. In desperate circumstances, he added, they have the willingness to come together to solve problems. In the Yogyakarta’s earthquake and its surroundings in the year 2006, the people can quickly recover from devastation in a short time. "The world recorded Indonesia as the fastest in coping with post-earthquake recovery, because it still has the attitude of mutual cooperation, mutual assistance . Therefore, the relationship between culture and real economic activity continue to be part of the lecturer’s research at UGM," he said.
Seen attending this event were the Senior Vice Rector for Administration and Human Resources, Prof. Ainun Na’im, MBA, Ph.D., Vice Rector of Alumni & Business Development, Prof. Ir. Atyanto Dharoko, M. Phil., Ph.D, Executive Secretary, Drs. Djoko Moerdiyanto, MA, Head of International Affairs Office, Dr. Eng. R Rachmat Sriwijaya A ST, MT. While from the Parliamentary Group were Dr. Andreas Schockenhoff, Mr. Philipp Missfelder, Dr. Michael Guentner, Dr. Ulrich Scharlack, Dr. Michael Frank and Mr. Winfried Weck.