From 10th – 13th May 2019, BINUS UNIVERSITY hosted its annual Binus Festival, an event that features ‘internationalization’ seminars and workshops across all campuses and covering a variety of important topics such as climate change, trade, and human rights in business. The festival is part of the university’s enrichment program and replaces regular classes for week 9 of the academic calendar. Each study program presented their own individual themes and this year Binus Global focused on the role of Indonesia’s healthcare system on developing economic growth.

Prominent guests attending the event included Dr Asti Widihastuti as the UNPFA’s (United Nations Population Fund) HIV Prevention Analyst, Ms Levana Sani as Managing Director of Nalagenetics Singapore, and Mr Rizki Oceano as Go-Academy Program Manager at Go-Jek. The seminars aimed to highlight Indonesia’s progress since 1990 in increasing life expectancy and reducing child and maternal mortality as the country becomes an economic powerhouse in Southeast Asia. However, despite such progress, more than 16,000 children still die yearly from preventable diseases such as measles and tuberculosis.

By implementing the WHO’s Sustainable Development Goals, Indonesia can commit to ending communicable diseases by 2030. This can improve overall labour productivity as healthier individuals tend to have higher returns to labour input. Furthermore, these healthy individuals will also have a greater incentive to invest in areas such as education; a key driver of economic growth.

The Binus Festival is demonstrative of the university’s commitment to preparing students for the era of globalization. In doing so, its graduates are ready to provide their expertise in developing innovative value chain models across vital industries in the country and abroad.