Universitas Indonesia (UI) has again expanded and strengthened its commitment to international cooperation with various university and industrial partners. This time, UI, together with Central South University (CSU) China, are ready to collaborate with GEM Co., Ltd.—a leading new energy, recycling, and urban mining company in the world. In order to explore the potential for global collaboration in the fields of science and technology, a number of representatives from UI, CSU, and GEM held a meeting on Thursday (7/9), in Meeting Room A, Floor 2, University Administration Center Building, UI Depok Campus.
Before discussing the potential for collaboration with GEM, on that occasion UI and CSU signed an extension of the collaboration that has been implemented since 2019. This extension of commitment also marks the expansion of cooperation between UI and CSU which includes collaborative projects in the field of academic and non-academic staff exchanges, student exchanges, as well as curriculum development in the form of joint program development, collaborative research, and joint international conferences.
Secretary of UI University, dr. Agustin Kusumayati, M.Sc., Ph.D., emphasized the importance of global collaboration between universities and companies in advancing science and technology. She said, “As a world-class university that will continue to develop science and technology, it is important to continue collaborating with academic partners and industrial partners. We hope that this meeting can be a more serious first step for impactful collaboration in the future.”
The desire to develop science and technology is also shared by CSU. In his introductory session, CSU Vice President, Gou Xueyi, said that as a School of Metallurgy and Environment (SME) which has been established for 70 years, CSU has a complete geology, mining and metallurgy system. CSU is one of the world’s top universities in the field of metallurgical discipline, ranking 1st and 3rd in the world for Mining Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
“Directly supervised by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, we are here to build friendly relations and scientific collaboration. We believe that UI is a well-known university in Indonesia, so there is huge room to increase international cooperation between Indonesia and China to a higher level,” said Guo Xueyi.
Meanwhile, Chairman of GEM Co., Ltd., Prof. Xu Kaihua, who is also a graduate of CSU, said that apart from working together in the academic field, Indonesia and China have also become big business partners on the world stage. According to him, Indonesia is currently in the global spotlight, thus the quality of UI and Indonesia’s progress are currently the main impetus for big business people to collaborate.
“Last year it was the G20 Summit, this year the ASEAN Summit. Therefore, the whole world is watching Indonesia’s progress. China and Indonesia have created a great opportunity for partnership. About 30 business people have come from China and I am one of them. We were advised directly by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) to collaborate with UI. The hope is that our collaboration can contribute to the economy and technology in Indonesia,” said Prof. Xu Kaihua.
GEM Co., Ltd. is a leading company in the world that was founded in 2001 and has been collaborating with Indonesia since 2019. During its four years in Indonesia, GEM has provided various investments, both in the business and academic fields. In the academic field, GEM provided metallurgical scholarships for dozens of Indonesian students and built a Metallurgical Research and Development Center in Morowali, North Sulawesi.
The meeting was continued with a discussion regarding concrete projects that would be carried out together. UI representatives who attended the meeting were the Director of Innovation and Science Techno Park, Ahmad Gamal, S.Ars., M.U.P., Ph.D.; Director of the UI Community Service and Empowerment Directorate, Agung Waluyo, S.Kp., M.Sc., Ph.D.; Director of Administration, Data and Management of Research and Innovation Products, Suminto, S.Sos., M.Si.; Head of the International Office, drg. Baiduri Widanarko, M.KKK, Ph.D.; and Head of the Center for Independent Learning, Fransiskus Astha Ekadiyanto, S.T., M.Sc.
Meanwhile, representatives from CSU who took part in the discussion included Co Dean of the school of Metallurgy and Environment, Cheng Qiongwan; Vice Dean of the school of Metallurgy and Environment, Chen Ailiang; Deputy Director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges, Li Xinhua; and Deputy Chief of Student Affairs Section, school of international Educations, Peng Sayi. The representatives from GEM Co., Ltd., consisted of Vice CEO, Zhang Kun; CEO Assistant and Director of Jakarta Office, Song Wei; CEO Assistant, Li Jinping; as well as Vice Director of Jakarta Office, Ellin Victoria and Li Yuanyuan.
It is hoped that this official meeting between the three parties will pave the way for broader research and innovation cooperation in the fields of science and technology, as well as strengthen partnerships between academic institutions and industry. “This is a promising first step in building a strong collaboration network at the international level for the advancement of science and technology in Indonesia,” said Ahmad Gamal.
