The President of Singapore, Halimah Yacob, visited UGM on Thursday (6/2) as part of a two-day visit to Yogyakarta. At UGM, she participated in a dialogue session entitled “Singapore and Indonesia: Strengthening Bridges and Progressing Together” which was attended by UGM students from various faculties.
Halimah stated that Indonesia and Singapore have a good longstanding relationship. This relationship, according to her, needs to be maintained for years to come to face various challenges together.
“Many things have been achieved through cooperation so far. I encourage you to continue this in the coming years for long-term mutual benefits,” she said.
At the beginning of the discussion, she explained the various collaborations that Singapore has carried out with the government or other institutions in Indonesia which, according to her, have shown very positive results.
One area that she thinks needs to be further explored for future cooperation is digital economy. As a technology-literate generation, students, according to her, have a great opportunity to take advantage of technology for advancement in various fields.
She hopes that there will be more specialized cooperation in the fields of financial technology, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and big data services.
“There is a natural synergy and many areas where we can learn from each other. I believe the cooperation between Singapore and Indonesia is a win-win and we can both benefit from it,” said Halimah.
On this occasion, she also responded to various questions raised by students regarding the relationship between Indonesia and Singapore as well as positive aspects from Singapore that could be used as an example for Indonesia. One of the questions that arose was related to Singapore’s efforts to bring peace in a very diverse society.
Halimah explained that unity is obtained through a long and difficult process. According to her, one of the supporters in this process is the existence of a platform in the form of cross-religious and cross-racial organizations, both at the national level and in a smaller scope.
Peace, she said, can be nurtured when different individuals are aware of a common interest they have and are willing to strive to achieve this.
“Don’t focus on differences or conflicts, but focus on similarities. We, as human beings, all need education, work and other such things, and this would not be possible without peace,” she explained.
During this visit, Halimah was accompanied by the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Grace Fu, Minister of State / Ministry of Manpower Sam Tan, Singapore Ambassador to Indonesia Anil Nayar, and Member of Parliament Jessica Tan Soon Neo.
The visit itself aims to strengthen relations between the two countries, especially in the fields of education and culture.
In his speech, UGM Rector Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng, IPU, ASEAN Eng., said that UGM has close relations with universities in Singapore, especially with the National University of Singapore, (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Singapore Management University (SMU).
The cooperation that has been established includes student exchanges, lecturer exchanges, summer course programs, entrepreneurship programs for students, and leadership training programs.
“Collaboration between UGM and Singapore institutions has become a long tradition. At UGM, we have around 30 teachers who graduated from Singapore and we are very proud of them,” said the Rector.
He also revealed that students from Indonesia and Singapore must be aware of developments at the regional level which are promising and require attention.
As countries bound by geographic proximity, Indonesia and Singapore are destined to work together and ensure that the younger generations of both countries can carry out their roles as potential leaders at the global level.
“Just as Indonesian youths must understand Singapore, the young generation in Singapore cannot ignore Indonesia. So, let’s work together and focus on possible collaborations and solutions to develop together,” he explained.
Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/18995-kunjungi-ugm-presiden-singapura-berdialog-dengan-para-mahasiswa
