An economics lecturer of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), Dimas Bagus Wirantakusuma, and a fourth semester student of economics, Alif Supriyanto, achieved the best paper award in the 13th UBAYA International Annual Symposium on Management (INSYIMA). The symposium was conducted by University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 18-20 March 2016.
Dimas informed that there were 160 papers participating in the symposium written by practitioners and academicians of ASEAN countries. “Our paper discussed the significance of monetary union of ASEAN countries. Our paper is entitled ‘Building ASEAN Exchange Rate Unit (AERU) for Monetary Integration in ASEAN-5 Countries’. The best paper was selected based in research methodology, analysis, and the conformity of the symposium topic,” he told.
The paper was also reviewed by nine assessors of University of Surabaya, Ho Chi Minh University, Eastern Illinois University, Manchester Business School, and World Bank. “It is an honor to obtain the award, and it shows that academicians of UMY are ready to compete in ASEAN and in the world, particularly in research field.
The paper examined the economic possibility of five developed ASEAN countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines to coin single currency like Euro in Europe. The paper provided the real ASEAN currency equalized with several world currencies. “The findings revealed that ASEAN could make monetary union and the currency stability can be maintained if it is aligned with Yuan China. The results are quite reasonable due to the economic growth of People’s Republic of China and the closed trade relations between ASEAN-5 and People’s Republic of China,” Dimas explained.
The monetary union of ASEAN is expected to be able to foster ASEAN countries and to preserve the regional currency stability. “Nevertheless, the paper implied that the policy of monetary union making entails a central bank and all of the members should unify all monetary policies under single authority. The political commitment of all members and economic convergence are necessary,” he expounded.
Besides, Alif stated that many parties appreciated UMY since most of UMY’s delegates were undergraduate students. “In fact, 200 presenters of the international symposium were mostly lecturers and practitioners who have pursued their master and doctoral degree. UMY was the only one university of more than 50 ASEAN universities sending the undergraduate students,” he said.
UMY’s representatives in the symposium were an economic lecturer of, Dimas Bagus Wirantakusuma, and eight students, namely Sumandi (Economics Department, batch 2013), Alif Supriyanto (Manajement Department, batch 2014), Nida’ Al Ulfah Untoro (Economics Department, batch 2014), Alfina Rahmatia (International Program for Islamic Economics and Finance/IPIEF, batch 2013), Farhan Fabila (IPIEF, batch 2014), Heni Rahmawati (IPIEF, batch 2014), Mia Rosmiati (International Program of Governmental Studies/IGOV, batch 2015), and Rezky Izzati Afiah Rahman (Department of Information Technology, batch 2013). They were divided into three teams presenting their distinct papers.
