Lombok, 18-19 July 2022: The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) participated in and supported the 17th Indonesian Regional Science Association (IRSA) conference which was held in Lombok from 18 to 19 July 2022. The two-day event gathered numerous Indonesian and international economists. ERIA’s Chief Economist, Prof Fukunari Kimura was one of the keynote speakers along with other renowned scientists, namely Prof Iwan Jaya Azis from Cornell University, Prof Alessandra Faggian from Gran Sasso Science Institute, Dr Amalia A. Widyasanti from BAPPENAS, Dr Ida Aju Resosudarmo from the Australian National University, and Prof John Gibson from Waikato University. ERIA also supported the event as one of the event’s sponsors. Furthermore, ERIA held two special sessions on the first day of the event (one of which was in collaboration with LPEM University of Indonesia) and another special session in collaboration with the Indonesia Bureau of Economic Research (IBER) on the second day of the event. Two ERIA research associates presented their papers in parallel sessions and each was awarded the IRSA-BKF Paper Awards on Economic Disruptions and Government Responses.

ERIA’s special session on the first day of the event was chaired by ERIA’s Senior Economist, Dr Fauziah Zen. The session saw three paper presentations by ERIA’s staff. Amelia Litania, ERIA program officer, presented a paper titled ‘Women and Digital Economy in ASEAN: Entrepreneurship, Digital Divide, and the Spatial Dimension’. That paper was co-authored by Giulia Marsan, ERIA’s Strategy and Partnership Director. Dr Takuma Kato, ERIA’s Director for Healthcare and Long-Term Care Policy, presented a report on ERIA’s longitudinal studies on elderly people’s health in the Philippines and Viet Nam. This session ended with a presentation by ERIA’s research associate, Hendro Putra Johannes of a paper titled ‘Applying the Extended Producer Responsibility Towards Plastic Waste in Asian Developing Countries for Reducing Marine Plastic Debris’. The paper was co-authored by ERIA’s Michikazu Kojima, Fusanori Iwasaki, and Ellen Putri Edita. The other special session which was held in collaboration with LPEM University of Indonesia saw the presentations of two paper that was co-authored by Dr Fauziah Zen. These papers raised the issue of infrastructure provision to address the digital divide and the role of private-public partnerships in the development of infrastructure projects.

On the last day of the event, ERIA, in collaboration with IBER, held a hybrid special session which saw online panel presentations by Dr M. Chatib Basri along with ERIA’s Prof Fukunari Kimura, Dr Lili Yan Ing, and Dr Yessi Vadila. This session raised the issue of economic recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Finally, ERIA’s research associates, Pyan Amin Muchtar and Militcyano Samuel Sapulette each presented a paper that they co-authored in parallel sessions on the second day. Pyan Amin Muchtar presented a paper titled ‘Nudging People to Handwash During the Pandemic: The Use of Visual Priming and Saliency’, a paper that was co-authored with other researchers from Nudgeplus Indonesia and Hassanuddin University. Militcyano Samuel Sapulette presented a paper titled ‘Interregional Assessments of MSME Credit Channeling amid the Pandemic: Analyzing the Role of the Digital Business Environment, a paper that was co-authored with researchers from CEDS Universitas Padjadjaran and Parahyangan University. For their papers, Pyan Amin Muchtar and Militcyano Samuel Sapulette each were awarded IRSA-BKF Paper Awards on Economic Disruptions and Government Responses. The award was given to three papers at the closing ceremony of the event.