Earlier this year, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) released encouraging population data: Indonesia's population is increasingly dominated by young people (> 53%) of a total population of 270 million people. They are known as Generation Z who are currently in the age of 8–23 years old and Millennials Generation who are 24–39 years old.
A large number of Gen Zs have long been targeted by Pertamina to explore their ideas and creativity in creating innovation. Some of those attracting the interest of Pertamina are students in the ‘oil City’ Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. They were invited to create and innovate during the Youth Innovation Project event held by the Balikpapan Refinery (Unit V), a Pertamina processing unit under the coordination of Sub-holding Refining & Petrochemical, PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional (PT KPI).
Ifki Sukarya, Corporate Secretary of Subholding Refining & Petrochemical said, “This event features various innovations from a number of universities in Balikpapan. The innovations being created are expected to have an impact on society and in the end, be able to boost economic growth and develop the surrounding areas."
The BPS population data further states that the increasing number of young people cannot be separated from the efforts to improve public health, nutrition and lifestyle carried out by both the Government and the business community. Pertamina's efforts to improve this, have become Pertamina's main concern through its community development programs. Pertamina has a special program for young people, to try to assist them in materializing their ideas and innovations.
Ifki added that in this Youth Innovation Project event, there were 174 titles of works and 84 proposals which would be shortlisted into 10 works to advance to the final round. Gen Z whose proposals are in the top five will be given the opportunity to manifest their innovative ideas. This activity takes place in stages from December 2020 to April 2021.
On Thursday (4/2) and Friday (5/2), these young people of the hope of this nation presented their projects virtually. "A total of 10 best proposals have been presented in front of the jury virtually. The best 5 will be selected at later date to continue to the final phase," Ifki explains.
In the contest of ideas, the Balikpapan refinery presented a number of judges from various entities, including Pertamina. Academics were represented by Mulawarman University lecturer Aji Sofyan, the mass media was represented by Kaltim Post HR Manager Thomas Wirya, and Pertamina was represented by the Balikpapan Refinery Engineering Development Manager Kurniawan, the Head of the Agent of Change Team at the Balikpapan Refinery, Resmihadi, as well as the Balikpapan Refinery Area Manager Communications, Relations & CSR, Ely Chandra.
"These Gen Z will become the nation's future leaders. Therefore, Pertamina always tries to encourage them to show-case millions of innovative ideas and help realize their innovative works. The hope is that in the future this activity will have a positive impact on people's lives," concluded Ifki.
Editing by Roffie Kurniawan
