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Great turn-out at Indonesia Alumni Event in Jakarta on Friday 11th October
On Friday October 11th, the fourth of a series of jubilee alumni events took place, this time in Jakarta. This alumni event is part of a series of alumni events being organised in the jubilee year of 95th Anniversary of Wageningen University. The event took place at the Erasmus House at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and around 70 alumni were present. Thanks to the NESO Office Indonesia, who organised this event for Wageningen University. Many alumni travelled from various regions in Indonesia to attend the event which was both a reunion to see former classmates and also to meet new Wageningen friends.
The event was kindly hosted at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands where all alumni and the key-note speakers received a warm welcome by Wageningen alumnus and thematic Water Expert, Mr. Peter de Vries. Delia de Vreeze, Director alumni relations opened the event by stressing the importance of engaging with alumni worldwide and the fact that so many alumni living in Indonesia turned up for this event proved that this should be done on a regular basis. The current developments at Wageningen UR, our growth in MSc and PhD student numbers, an insight in cooperation with Indonesia both in education and research collaboration was given.
The speakers of the evening talked more in-depth about the Green Economy: Capitalizing on green gold. A lively discussion, led by Rien Bor, started not only during but also after the three presentations were given.
The first presentation was given by Dr. Huub Löffler, Director Wageningen International about the importance of sustainable green economy, the dilemma’s which we all but specifically Indonesia deals with on how to provide a sustainable green economy. Will it be the first generation bio-economy, based on using food for biofuels, therefore being in direct competition with food products. Or will the second generation bio-economy, based on using non-food products for biofuel which indirectly conflicts with creating enough food supply prove to be more sustainable?
The second presentation, given by Dr. Idwan Suhardi, Senior Advisor to the Minister of Research and Technology (RISTEK) and member of the Board of Innovation Council Indonesia. His presentation gave a clear overview of the complexity of implementation of bio-economy, whether it is green economy, blue economy or red economy in Indonesia. More insight was given about the large democratic country Indonesia is and how many people need to be fed on a daily basis and how this can and needs to be done, the primary process being the key-factor in this.
Lastly, alumna Aretha Aprilia, Director of the Indonesia Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production at Surya University talked about Waste Water Management developments. This was an extremely good example of the different societal dilemma’s that are integrated in Indonesian society and the possible technological developments which can be implemented and how they need to go hand in hand in order to be successful.
Throughout the presentations and afterwards, a lively discussion, led by Rien Bor, mainly addressed the difficulties and queries regarding waste water management in Indonesia.
The evening continued with an informal reception with a buffet where there was plenty of time to further discuss the topic green economy. Many also shared their Wageningen student memories again, which made them realise that Wageningen still very strongly plays a role for most alumni, whether recently graduated or over forty years ago. Ideas about future alumni activities in Indonesia were discussed and will be followed up very soon.