On Monday, 2 December 2019, the Faculty of Humanities at President University welcomed a team from the Center for Policy Analysis and Development for American and European Regions or Pusat Pengkajian dan Pengembangan Kebijakan Kawasan Amerika dan Eropa (P3K2 Amerop), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia to formally hand over the final report on their joint studies on “The Strategy to Enhance Indonesia’s Economic Diplomacy with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).” The handover event was held at President University, Cikarang.
The report was the culmination of seven months of research that had been initiated by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Working Agreement between the two institutions to conduct research collaboration and studies on the aforementioned topic. Prior to this agenda, the Faculty of Humanities at President University and P3K2 Amerop had held a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on 18 October 2019 before finalizing their findings for the completion of the studies.
During the welcoming remark, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities Dr. Endi Haryono, S.IP., M.Si. stated his hope, “that this collaboration won’t be the last, instead a beginning of further potential collaborations through a number of upcoming programs that we will carry, considering the need to close in the distance between the university and other stakeholders, among others the industry, other sectors as well as the government. Through elaborate synergy between the two, hopefully, we can provide appropriate response towards the challenges in this so-called disruptive era.”
The Head of P3K2 Amerop, Dr. Ben Perkasa Drajat responded positively. “We are very grateful for the collaborative partnership between us. We have achieved a fruitful outcome on the topic of economic diplomacy within Latin America that focuses on Pacific Alliance. We hope that partnerships between us as an internal think thank institution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and partner universities such as President University can continue to strive,” he explained.
Further collaborations between the two institutions are to be expected, including but not limited to inviting lecturers of International Relations Study Program and other study programs under the Faculty of Humanities as the speakers in workshops, seminars/discussions, and/or FGDs organized by the Policy Analysis and Development Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.