The Indonesian Economic Student Forum or more commonly referred to as FMEI is an institution that plays a pioneering role in producing policy recommendations for the country, especially from an economic perspective. Consisting of 15 University Members, namely the University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, Padjadjaran University, Bogor Agricultural Institute, Sebelas Maret University, Brawijaya University, Yogyakarta State University, Sriwijaya University, Jenderal Soedirman University, Diponegoro University, North Sumatra University, Mulawarman University, University of Telkom, Universitas Airlangga , and Satya Wacana Christian University. When FMEI was held at UNMUL, there were three universities that were unable to attend for one reason or another, namely UI, IPB, and UNSOED. However, there was one prospective FMEI member who attended, namely from UNNES.
In a year, FMEI holds physical meeting congresses twice. In the early period of 2019, precisely on 24 – 27 April 2019, the FMEI physical meeting congress was held at Mulawarman University, Samarinda with the theme Middle Income Trap. On that occasion Universitas Airlangga had the opportunity to send 5 delegates with the following details:
- Forum Chair: Muhammad Hanif Ichwanudin – Management 2016
- Kastrat Forum: Arfan Maulana – Islamic Economics 2018
Adinda Pramesti – Accounting 2017
- External Forum: Rahmad Kurniawan – Development Economics 2017
Sarah Hersa Amira – Management 2018
A delegation of UNAIR representatives left for Samarinda on April 23 2019, the day before the activity. Considering the availability of departure tickets to Balikpapan which are adjusted to the lowest prices. Then the UNAIR delegation arrived in Samarinda at around 9.30 WITA and then continued their journey to Samarinda and arrived at around 14.30 WITA. The delegation then rested and continued with team discussions and framing in the evening before the congress was held the following day.
The first day of the congress was held on April 24 2019 with the opening held at the FEB UNMUL Deanery which was then continued with brainstorming from INDEF and representatives from BI. The event continued with ishoma and conditioning at the Royal Park Hotel then the event continued again at around 20.00 WITA with a Small Deliberation for each forum. There are different discussions and implementations at the Small Deliberation in each forum which will later be reviewed at the large deliberation, one of which is to produce points which will be produced as a form of recommendation to the stakeholders in the Realization of Follow-up Actions. The following are the recommended points from the first FMEI physical meeting congress at UNMUL:
- Encourage regulatory harmony between the central and regional governments regarding the ease of investment, especially those originating from within the country.
- Accelerate the dissemination of information related to existing digital-based MSME platforms. The government provides counseling and training to the community and MSMEs regarding digitalization.
- Encouraging educational reform in the industrial era 4.0 (edification 4.0), one of the focuses is fulfilling the skills needed for employment.
- Integration of infrastructure-based tourism with the Government-Enterprise Cooperation scheme.
- Optimizing the role of the real sector. In these 3 cases the manufacturing, creative, tourism industries are based on Indonesia's potential (agrarian and maritime)
- Strengthening government support in the form of ease of licensing for researchers in Indonesia in channeling the latest innovations as well as optimal use of Research and Development funds so that the output produced can be used domestically.
- Effectively allocate Foreign Aid as a form of income.
Of the 7 recommendations above, UNAIR contributed one recommendation, namely point 6.
Even though the follow-up realization has been carried out, the discussions at this large deliberation have not yet ended because there are still several main discussions that have not been completed, including discussions about PRESNAS or National Presidium, AD/ART. After deliberating for quite a long time, finally the theme for the second FMEI physical meeting congress at Universitas Airlangga was determined, namely Restructuring Indonesian taxes to increase the tax ratio in realizing the acceleration of the Indonesian economy. The big deliberation had to be temporarily stopped again because it had to be continued with the next agenda, namely the Gala Dinner. This Gala Dinner was held at the Bumi Senyiur Hotel, Samarinda.
The big deliberation was finally held after the Gala Dinner which started at around 23.00 WITA. on that occasion the material from the Grand Conference was related to the selection of PRESNAS from the 3 existing forums. Namely, PRESNAS 1 represents the Chairman's Forum, PRESNAS 2 represents the Heads' Forum, and PRESNAS 3 represents the External Forum.
Through the existing dynamics, and at that moment the Universitas Airlangga delegate was also proposed to become PRESNAS 1 but the person concerned was not willing to remember that at the next congress Universitas Airlangga would be the Congress Coordinator so it was necessary to focus more there, so an agreement was reached that it became PRESNAS 1, brother. Moh. Reza Munandar from Mulawarman University, PRESNAS 2 sisters Shinta Hircatanu. R. from Gadjah Mada University, and PRESNAS 3 brothers Adhitya Kharisma from Diponegoro University. The third MUBES finished at 02.30 WITA and closed with the signing of the results of the congress and the swearing-in of the elected PRESNAS.
