Tourism Awareness Group (or so-called "Pokdarwis" in Bahasa) is a community-powered group that focuses on energizing the village's potential in the tourism sector. Pokdarwis of Sumber Sumilir is a Tourism Awareness Group based in Sumberharjo Village, Prambanan Sub-district, Sleman Regency. This village is well-known for its two tourist destinations一Teletubbies Hill and Domes-shaped house一beside the lovely scenery because of the expanse of rice fields and greenery. 

By setting a mission to reactivate tourism in this village that has been in a downturn caused by the pandemic for two years, Pokdarwis of Sumber Sumilir chooses a progressive approach accommodating friendly policy towards the environment. In doing so, Pokdarwis put the priority on community empowerment approach to rectify the existing environmental condition, hoping that it will attract tourists to come. That approach is assessed as a significant step in addressing unwell-managed waste.

Regarding that environmental issue, Pokdarwis of Sumber Sumilir precisely re-ignited tourism activities in Sumberharjo Village by upholding the environmental-motivated movement initiated by Andy Purnawan. Andy is a 'creativepreneur' specializing in a leather craft named "Kenandy." Kenandy steadily strengthens the circular economy vision by becoming a member of the Indonesia Consortium for Circular Economy (ICCE). Andy argued that the spirit of protecting nature has to be integrated with the community empowerment agenda. 

Lack of waste management and environmental education in this village, Andy aims to improve these conditions. Tourism and a good environment are two things that should bolster hand-in-hand, Andy thinks. Therefore, Andy envisions that the tourist attractions in the Sumberharjo Village will be based on ecotourism一 a concept that combining local wisdom of rural life with natural tourist attractions. In general, the concept of ecotourism will be packaged through “Clean Village” activities.

Simultaneously, to achieve a better situation of tourism in Sumberharjo Village, Pokdarwis, presided over by Andy, has initiated concrete actions involving 18 sub-village in Sumberharjo in regard to collecting the waste by its types. Collaborating with Rapel Indonesia, this action has successfully launched three waste banks in Sumberharjo for the past four months, namely Cincing Jarik, Puspa, and Brilian Teletubbies.

Cincing Jarik, one of the excellent precedents of the bank of waste in Sumberharjo, has been running its business for the last three months. This waste bank consists of 10-12 households as its members. Every single member household in this waste bank is responsible for classifying wastes by their types on the level of family basis before storing them in a collecting point each month.

Beyond existing banks of waste, Andy and his team, on December 21st, 2022, also massively held a seminar about classifying inorganic waste in Sengir Sub-village. Marta Yenny, the representative of Rapel Indonesia taking a role as speaker, underlined that the bank of waste and its system will directly support circular economy practices to realize a cleaner environment and healthier people, exceedingly Sumberharjo is identified as a tourism village. To conclude, Andy also reaffirmed that this so-far action will get enough attention from various stakeholders to empower the tourism sector in Sumberharjo in the context of a post-pandemic recovery agenda.

Indonesia will still host the U-20 World Cup in 2023. In the aftermath of the Kanjuruhan Stadium tragedy, Indonesia’s right to conduct the U-20 World Cup was questioned due to the possible sanctions from FIFA – the world's highest governing body of football. However, the sanctions were not discussed in the meeting between President Joko Widodo and the President of FIFA last month. Contrarily, FIFA’s President, Gianni Infantino, announced  the FIFA team’s plan to visit Indonesia as a way to enhance cooperation and collaboration in preparing the tournament. 

The U-20 World Cup is expected to bring plenty of advantages for Indonesia on its first hosting experience. These are the U-20 World Cup’s economic benefits for Indonesia.

What is the U-20 World Cup?

The World Cup is an international football competition organised by FIFA every four years. Each country gets a chance to become the host of the World Cup, which has been held regularly since 1930. FIFA also organises other international football tournaments for youth players (U-20 World Cup and U-17 World Cup), for women (U-20 Women's World Cup and U-17 Women's World Cup), for football clubs (Club World Cup), and for other types of football such as Futsal World Cup and Beach Soccer World Cup.

As one of the most popular youth tournaments, the U-20 World Cup is held biannually for national team players who are under 20 years old. So far, there have been 24 teams from 24 countries that will compete for the prestigious trophy. The 24 countries that qualify for the final stage will be drawn into six groups of four teams. Currently, Indonesia has joined five teams from Europe, four teams from North America, and two teams from Oceania.

Although the locations of city and stadium for next year's U-20 World Cup has not been determined, Indonesia has been preparing six stadiums, namely the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, Si Jalak Harupat Stadium in Bandung, Manahan Stadium in Solo, Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium in Surabaya, I Wayan Dipta Gianyar Stadium in Bali, and Gelora Sriwijaya Stadium in Palembang. To support the preparations, the Indonesian government is currently renovating the stadiums’ infrastructure, especially upon the stadium grass.

The Economic Benefits of Hosting the World Cup

In general, the World Cup provides an opportunity for the host country to increase international perception. Broadcasted both by national and international media, the U-20 World Cup provides an opportunity for Indonesia to exhibit not only the grandeur and success of the tournament, but also the potential of tourism in various regions in Indonesia.

The advancement of Indonesia’s tourism sector through the U-20 World Cup is expected to bring  several multiplier effects, wherein the presence of foreign tourists as the spectator of this competition will boost the sector. This projection is based on Poland's economic growth after hosting the U-20 World Cup in May and June 2019. According to the Polish Statistics Agency, there was an increase in the number of domestic and foreign tourists as seen from the occupancy rate of hotels and similar inns. In May 2019, the number of residents was recorded at 3,280,645. This result increased by 8.9% compared to the previous year.

Besides tourism, Indonesia can take advantage from the entry of investment. The need to increase the accommodation, transportation, and infrastructure facilities for the competition can be utilised to attract and establish partnerships between domestic and foreign investors. Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno plans to massively promote Indonesian tourism through digital marketing. Apart from investing in the tourism sector, domestic and foreign investors can actively participate in various infrastructure renovation projects for the U-20 World Cup. 

The infrastructure renovations and the increasing accommodation facilities will create more jobs that will subsequently contribute to the GDP of the host country. Various international events require international infrastructure and facilities standard, with no exception the U-20 World Cup. Therefore, the tournament requires  a large number of workers to achieve the standard. Lee and Taylor (2004) reported more than 31,000 jobs created in Japan and South Korea during their collaboration in hosting the 2002 World Cup. This job creation helped create an economic impact of approximately $1.35 billion in output, with an additional $1 billion directed toward collective income and value.

Looking from the previous hosts’ pattern of experiences, Indonesia will likely receive similar economic benefits from hosting the U-20 World Cup in 2023. The national and local government are required to not only prepare the tournament, but also utilise the economic potential of the international competition for national economic development. 

The annual World Trade Organization Chairs Programme (WCP) Conference was successfully held on 25-27 July 2022, in Geneva, Switzerland. The representatives from World Trade Organization (WTO), WCP board, and WCP chairholders gathered to discuss various issues related to international trade and the vision for WCP years ahead. Topics such as the results of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12), WTO responses towards the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and the advancement of sustainable trade became the main focus of the three-days conference. 

Established in 2010, WCP is a programme that aims to enhance research activities and knowledge dissemination related to international trade in developing countries. Initially, there were only 14 academic institutions that were chosen as chairholders, in which Center for World Trade Studies (CWTS) UGM  has been one of the chairholder since the beginning. Currently, there are 36 universities from various developing countries that have joined the WCP scheme. 

The Director of CWTS UGM, Dr. Riza Noer Arfani, represented Indonesia in the 2022 WCP Conference. In this conference, Dr. Riza presented several case studies related to circular economy activities, MSMEs development, and Indonesia economic recovery which have been actively implemented by CWTS UGM since 2021. The activities of CWTS UGM related to the previously mentioned issues include both local and international workshops, webinar, journal publication, and podcast releases. Together with other delegates, such as the delegates of Mauritius, Barbados, and Kenya, Dr. Riza reiterates how WCP projects, which are relevant for both developed and developing countries, can play a significant role in promoting sustainable and inclusive international trade. 

During the annual conference, WTO Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala conveyed the importance of the chairholders role in propelling the implementation of MC12 by delivering research-based policy recommendations. In the closing statement delivered by WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang, the active participation from chairholders is hoped to maintain and improve the research and dissemination activities on international trade related issues, as well as collaborations with policymakers and stakeholders.  

Friday (8/4/22), the Center for World Trade Studies (CWTS) Universitas Gadjah Mada held an online writing workshop which was attended by UGM PSPD interns from various departments. On this occasion, PSPD UGM invited Raras Cahyafitri, M.Sc as the head of the Research Division of PSPD UGM who is experienced in journalism and writing as a speaker. This workshop aims to improve the writing skills of interns and PSPD UGM staff to be able to produce quality and trustworthy writing. The material presented includes discussions related to techniques and how to write for various outcomes.

The workshop was opened with a discussion regarding the important and main steps in starting a writing, namely writing the main sentence. In her presentation, Raras said that there are two types of placement of the main sentence, namely inductive (placed at the end of writing) and deductive (placed at the beginning of writing). To make writing more interesting, writing with comprehensive and coherent paragraphs is needed. Raras introduced three ways of composing paragraphs known as SMS––sort, match, and structure, namely sorting information, grouping, and determining the writing structure.

At the end of the session, the workshop participants were taught how to process data in a text and put it into a written framework to be developed into paragraphs by providing space for the workshop participants to practice this. In this session, participants learn how to present scientific statistical data into an informative and easy-to-understand reading. Some workshop participants had difficulty putting this into practice because the participants had to understand well the data presented and practice drawing general conclusions. However, these skills are important for interns to have, especially in terms of presenting data-based information in various outputs at CWTS UGM.

The workshop activities were enthusiastically followed by the participants, which was shown by the active participation of the participants in the question and answer sessions and practice sessions. In the presentation session on material related to processing data into writing, the intern on average had difficulty putting the material into practice. Thus, reflecting on this activity, it is expected that in the future there will be similar programs that can help improve the ability of writers.

Ilustrasi oleh: Marsha

Monday (28/2/22), the Russian currency, the Ruble, was observed to have fallen drastically. The ruble plunged into 106.01 per dollar in Moscow and closed Wednesday (2/3/2022) at 106.02 after hitting a record intraday low of 118.35, recording a drop of more than 10% on the day. This decline is a result of the war that occurred between Russia and Ukraine, where countries in the world impose economic sanctions on Russia. A series of sanctions in the form of blocking major Russian banks from the international payment system or the Society Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)––a system that migrates billions of dollars from thousands of banks and other financial institutions around the world––comes from large and superpower countries, such as the United States and Europe. The impact of this blocking has prompted old Russian investors to seek new investment asylum to new safer zones, namely the yen and the US dollar.

In addition to the Ruble's fall, shares in major Russian banks also slumped as a result of sanctions imposed by western countries. Share price of Sberbank––Russia's largest lender––down 95% on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday (2/3/22) to trade at $0.01. This fall marked the lowest point in Sberbank's share price which led to its withdrawal from the European market. A spokesman for Sberbank stated that it, in particular its European subsidiaries, had experienced abnormal cash outflows following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Apart from Sberbank, major Russian stocks, including Novatek, Lukoil, and Rosneft, also experienced similar declines. In order to stabilize financial markets, the Central Bank of Russia intervened in the foreign exchange market and also expanded the Lombard list. Apart from Russian stocks, global stocks also experienced a similar decline to the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), where the JCI recorded a fall into the red zone with a decline of nearly 2% on Thursday (24/2/22). US stock markets were also sluggish, with the Dow Jones Indus AVG, S&P 500 Index to Nasdaq Composite slumping.

The sharp devaluation undergone by the Ruble has the potential to cause inflation and will most likely result in a bad impact on the Russian population who are likely to be suffocated by the prices of the soaring goods. Prices for homemade products, which are mostly imported, will skyrocket and the cost of traveling abroad will increase. In addition to inflation, the stock market could be in danger of closing. This economic downturn could also affect Russian military operations, with possible pressure on the smooth running of the operation. Russia's internal economic turmoil is expected to worsen shortly as the ruble's slumping value and falling stock prices forced supply activity to stop as a result of low demand.

Illustrated By: Marsha

Center for World Trade Studies Universitas Gadjah Mada (PSPD UGM) in collaboration with the Center for Agrotechnology Innovation Gadjah Mada University (PIAT UGM) and Janitra Bhumi Indonesia Education Consulting held a competition for elementary school principals entitled "Indonesia Green Principal Award 2022". This program was carried out on January 20-22, 2022.  It is marked as the initial stage of developing circular economy-based schools in Indonesia, which was attended by 22 principals of Muhammadiyah Elementary Schools and Madrasah Ibtidaiyah throughout Central Java.

Circular economy is an important theme in this program because it is in line with Indonesia’s position as the second most waste-producing country in the world after China. Presently, the "make-use-waste" linear economic culture is still widely applied by most Indonesians. In fact, this culture can cause adverse impacts on various aspects, ranging from the ecological system, society, to Indonesia's economic growth. Therefore, a solution is urgently needed to reduce and avoid problems that can possibly occur, namely in the form of developing and implementing a circular economy in society. In this case, the participation of the principal as the leader of an educational community is the key in the transformation process to become an agent of change.

The IGPA 2022 activity took place at PIAT UGM for 3 (three) days. The first day of this activity was divided into 3 (three) sessions. First, the opening session of the event was hosted by the drg. Ika Dewi Ana, M.Kes., Ph.D as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gadjah Mada and Dr. Ir. Taryono, M.SC as the Director of PIAT UGM. The second session, "Introduction to Circular Economics Panel" was led by Dr. Riza Noer Arfani as Director of PSPD UGM, Dr. Wahyu Chandra Purnomo, M.Eng. as Deputy Director of PIAT UGM, and Dr. Tri Mulyani Sunarharum from the Faculty of Engineering UGM. The first day's activities ended with a workshop session with the theme of “Initiating a Circular Economic School” presented by Dr. Junita Widiati Arfani from JBI Education Consulting and Suci Lestari Yuana, Ph.D. Cand. from Utrecht University, Netherlands.

On the second day, IGPA 2022 participants visited 3 (three) local institutions, those are PT. YPTI, SMAN 11 Yogyakarta, and several startups assisted by PT. YPTI. PT. YPTI is one of the first Indonesian-owned companies engaged in checking all exterior and interior body equipment in the automotive sector in Indonesia. In this program, the principals were welcomed by a presentation on "People, Planet, Profit" which was delivered by Mr. Petrus Tedja Hapsoro as Director of PT. YPTI Yogyakarta. Participants also went on a tour to see the products produced by PT. YPTI, such as Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) and other processed plastic products. After that, the participants visited SMAN 11 Yogyakarta which implemented a water management system program. The second day's activities ended by taking a look at the startup assisted by PT. YPTI, Stechoq and Helber, which are engaged in lego robotics, and INASTEK which makes products for automation engineering, particularly in the agro-industry sector, such as RVM and hydroponics.

On the last day, participants made a business model canvas and had a discussion with Rendy Aditya Wachid, B. Arch., MBA, as CEO and Founder of Parongpong RAW Lab, Bandung. Parongpong is a "zero landfills waste" management company that possesses a system design for each stakeholder to be able to carry out the 5Rs, which includes Refusing, Reusing, Reducing, Recycling, and Rethinking waste. The IGPA 2022 program ended with a closing by Dr. Riza Noer Arfani and awarding session for school principals. Through this program, CWTS expects that the participants, the principals of Muhammadiyah Elementary School and Madrasah Ibtidaiyah, can further develop and apply the concept of a circular economy in their education units.