Indonesia’s Young Generation and the ASEAN Economic Community

Hi there..

About 3 months ago, I joined the selection of Pertukaran Pemuda Antar Negara (PPAN), the youth exchange between Indonesia and several countries, which was held by Kementerian Pemuda dan Olahraga collaborate with Purna Caraka Muda Indonesia (PCMI) Sulawesi Tenggara-the alumni of PPAN for Southeast Sulawesi.

(I write the selection detail in different post)

Now, I'm going to show you one of the selection process that I made.

Writing an essay.

And here is my essay, titled "Indonesia’s Young Generation and the ASEAN Economic Community"

Source: http://learning.asean.org/DATA/IMAGES/2015/07/asean158

Hope it's useful for the us and future generation.

Indonesia is terrorized! Yes, moreover because the ASEAN Economic Community is getting closer. Many people have ever heard about this term, but not all of them know the purposes. Whereas, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 is the closest globalization movement that will happen in Indonesia’s international relations in this near future.

Nowadays, there are a lot of issues happened in Indonesia’s international relations. It cannot be denied that since the year of 2000, world has changed a lot. Even in Southeast Asia, the governments have already discussed about heading an ASEAN Community that is aimed to accelerate economy growth, socio-culture development, and political-security improvement.

On its progress, ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is more rapidly established than the socio-culture (ASEAN Socio-Culture Community) and political-security (ASEAN Political-Security Community). Therefore in the 13^th ASEAN Summit on November 2007, the Heads of States/Government of member countries of ASEAN declared an ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint that will be implemented on 2015.

The AEC Blueprint describes about strategic agenda in short-term, mid-term, and long-term from 2008 to 2015 towards the ASEAN economic integrity (Pahlawan, 2014), namely in this following key characteristics: a) a single market and production base (such as free flow trading in goods, services, investment, capital, and skilled labor, priority integration sectors, food, agriculture, and forestry); (b) a highly competitive economic region (in regional competition policy, Intellectual Property Rights–IPRs action plan, infrastructure development, ICT, energy cooperation, taxation, dan e-commerce); (c) a region of equitable economic development by SME (Small to Medium-sized Enterprise) development and programs of Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI); and (d) a region fully integrated into the global economy (coherent approach towards external economic relations and enhancing participation in global supply network). These characteristics are inter-related and mutually reinforcing.

In the other hand, referred from the Republic of Indonesia’s Act No. 40 of 2009 about Youth (Article 1, Paragraph 1), the age of young generation is categorized from 16 years old to 30 years old. And according to Indonesia’s Statistics Center 2015, there are 62,6 million people or 27% of the people that are classified into young generation in Indonesia. They have a role as moral force, social control, and the agent of change in all aspects in national development. Noticed on the agent of change, young generations are intended to develop politic and democratic education, economic resources, society concern, science and technology, sports, arts, and culture, environmental concern, entrepreneurship, and youth leadership and revolutionary (Act No. 40 of 2009, Article 17,Paragraph 3).

Now directing the AEC 2015 that will be come in less than 8 months, it is the time for young generation to create the internationalization atmosphere in Indonesia. It can be started from the roles of Indonesia’s young generation which give the realistic solution to fade this fear away, such as:

1.      Creating an ASEAN Youth Discussion Forum cooperating with the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Nadia, 2013). This forum or group is able to discuss issues of the three pillar of ASEAN Community.

2.         Holding a science and technology competition for students.

3.      Innovating in entrepreneurship to create competitiveness and enhance leadership act for the purpose of country and community development.

Let us be prepared to realize the ASEAN Economic Community 2015 in One Vision, One Identity, and One Community.

Bibliography

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (2008). ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint. Jakarta: ASEAN Secretariat.

Ministry of Trade, Republic of Indonesia. (2009). Menuju ASEAN Economic Community 2015. Jakarta.

Republic of Indonesia’s Act No. 40 of 2009 about Youth

Dewina, Viny Sonia. (2014). Mempersiapkan Generasi Muda Menghadapi Era Pasar Bebas ASEAN. Referred from: http://vinysoniadewina.blogspot.com/2014/05/ mempersiapkan-generasi-muda-menghadapi.html

Pahlawan, Ridwan. (2014). Persiapan Indonesia Menuju AEC 2015, Siapkah? Reffered from: http://politik.kompasiana.com/2014/04/25/persiapan-indonesia-menuju-aec-2015-siapkah--651179.html

Nadia, Naza. (2013). Jelang Komunitas ASEAN 2015: Persiapan Generasi Muda melalui Pilar Utama Sosial Budaya Menuju Era Baru Berbasis Satu Visi Satu Identitas dan Satu Komunitas. Reffered from http://nazanadia.tumblr.com/post/64127419734/jelang-komunitas-asean-2015-persiapan-generasi