"A country's competitiveness is needed in the global trade", it was conveyed in a general lecture entitled 'Lectures on Trade and Our Competitiveness' (Thursday, 04/17) at the BRI Auditorium, M.Sc and Doctor Program, FEB UGM. This agenda presented Dr. Lili Yan Ing (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia/ ERIA), Dr. Ari Kuncoro (Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Universitas Indonesia), and Dr. Sjamsu Rahardja (World Bank) as speakers. A country's competitiveness in global trade would affect the growth of trade in that country. In those countries with high competitiveness, trade growth would be high, while low competitive state, trade growth would also be low. Competitiveness was greatly influenced by the quality of human resources. High quality human resources would be able to improve a country's competitiveness in global trade. "Quality of human resources, at least, should have the ability in the field of information technology, concept, communication, logics, and arithmetic," explained Dr. Ari Kuncoro.

Indonesian education system affected the quality of human resources in Indonesia. The education system should not emphasize on rote learning. "Improving our education system needs to be carried from upstream to downstream by reducing rote and reproduce fabricate practice," said Dr. Ari Kuncoro. In addition, he also said that the improvement of education in Indonesia should not on quantity, but on quality. "Do not increase the quantity of vocational high school (SMK), but improve the quality of that vocational high school," added Dr. Ari Kuncoro. On this occasion, Dr. Sjamsu Rahardja stated that to be competitive, a country did not necessarily make a product as a whole; it could make a certain part of a product, but did it efficiently.

Source: Arlina/FEB