Asian students share ideas

Kurniawan Hari ,  The Jakarta Post -- Discover   |  Mon, 09/15/2008 3:43 PM  |  Education

A group of six students worked intently on a puzzle scattered in a small hut, located in the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Pavilion at the Indonesia in Miniature Park (TMII), East Jakarta.

The puzzle was part of several activities organized at the 9th Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative (HYLI), which ran from July 7 to July 11, 2008. The event was themed “Strengthening Asian Partnerships: Economic Integration and Energy Management”.

Hailing from different Asian nations, the students appeared to be enthusiastic in working on the puzzle. They finished the puzzle in under 10 minutes – it turned out to be a picture of an old aircraft.

The aircraft in the puzzle was a Dakota DC-3, a donation from the Acehnese people to the Republic of Indonesia three years after Independence.

After finishing the puzzle, the students moved to another location. This time, they had to solve another quiz from a height – aboard a cable car 20 meters in the air. There, the students worked on the quiz while enjoying the breeze and looking down on the miniature Indonesian archipelago below.

As many as 24 students – representing Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia – took part in the HYLI activities on July 10.

By lunchtime, the student teams had gathered at the Bali Pavilion, where they had lunch and enjoyed several cultural performances.

The activities at Bali Pavilion were their final outdoor program before they returned to their hotels to have a discussion related to the event’s theme.

In his keynote speech, Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo said that Asian integration was a timely and relevant issue, given the increasing role of Asia in the global economy.

“Since the beginning of the new millennium, the Asian economy has owned more than half of the world’s financial reserve. This indicates that the Asian economy prevails on the global freemarket,” he said.

The minister emphasized that dynamic partnerships among Asian countries would bring advantages, as it would give them higher leverage in their relations with other countries.

In the first two days of the HYLI, the students heard on issues like Asian regional integration, energy management and environmental sustainability from experts.

After finishing the twoday seminar, the students were divided in smaller groups to discuss the issues and ideas they had covered, and from which they drew up recommendations that would be sent to decisionmakers in the participating countries.

The inaugural HYLI was held in Singapore in 1996. Prior to its hosting in Jakarta, the event was held in Vietnam last year. 

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