The Economics and Business Faculty Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) and Equityworld Ltd. organized a webinar entitled ‘Digital Finance in Future Market’ dedicated to students. The webinar mainly served as a first step to educating students, particularly concerning the commodity market. 

The webinar took place on the sixth floor of the I building on Friday, December 22nd, 2023. Two speakers were featured to present their explanations from also two different perspectives, namely, academic and practical stance points, with Entot Hartono, M.Kom., a faculty member of the Department of Accounting, presenting the academic perspective. Whereas Ismet Faradis, the Head of Equityworld Futures Ltd. of the Semarang branch, presented the practical viewpoint. 

The webinar mainly discussed the future of the capital market. As stated by the Vice Dean of the Economics and Business Faculty, Dr. Retno Indah Hernawati, S.E., M.Si., the number of corporations in Indonesia constantly sees an increase if it were to be judged from the data. However, the market fluctuates, and it even sometimes causes a decrease in productivity.

“With this topic, we decided to partner with the best possible practitioners, which was coincidentally also a collaborator in the Independent Campus program. The webinar mainly discussed the future of the capital market,” she uttered. 

Meanwhile, the Dean of the Economics and Business Faculty, Prof. Vincent Didiek Wiet Aryanto, MBA., Ph.D., was also present and conveyed a warm greeting at the webinar by telling students to properly listen to the discussion. Then, he further explained that featuring a practitioner at the webinar served as a stepping stone for the faculty to sustain the need for knowledge, particularly surrounding the industry.

“Please utilize this opportunity by discussing with a practitioner. Hopefully, students could gather knowledge regarding the future of the capital market. Hence, they will not be able to get distracted easily by upcoming issues,” the dean explained. 

Understanding the Commodity Market

The webinar was hosted both offline and online using the Zoom Meeting platform. The first speaker was Ismet Faradis, with commodity futures trading being his topic of interest, which serves as one of many components pushing the Indonesian economy into advancements involving money and technology. 

“Commodity futures trading has been regulated in the constitution no. 10 in 2011. The transaction is conducted using a margin and ends according to the contract specification. It essentially functions as a place where the supplies and demands of commodities meet,” he explained. 

A safe commodity market transaction is conducted through a futures exchange, as it is legal and verified. Additionally, futures exchange is also supervised, and assured, and the transaction assurance is widely trusted. Futures exchange also safely assures funds and capital as it is placed in a separate account. To make matters safer, the bank providing the account is directly selected by the Agency of Futures Commodity Trading (Bappebti). 

“This knowledge is important for students to keep up with the era. Currently, the situation where money cannot be moved digitally may cause lateness. One of the most visible impacts is that futures trading formerly conducted offline, to being conducted online,” she uttered. 

The following discussion was presented by Entot Hartono, M.Kom., with Ecosystem and Safety of Financial Technology (Fintech) being the main topic of the discussion. He discussed this topic to enhance students’ understanding of the role of IT in the field of economics. Thus, students will be able to analyze the changes in the commodity market. 

As stated by the practitioner, era advancements evolved the transaction system into digital. Currently, Fintech has reached the 3.0 stage and most of it has utilized the digital wallet to conduct a transaction. 

“These days, the indicator of people being wealthy is their bank account instead of their wallets,” he uttered. 

With the presence of a digital wallet, many irresponsible parties will try to hack the system. For that reason, students need to understand the concept of cyber security as a security system protecting the assets of both individuals and groups in the digital form. 

“This cyber security concept refers to three practices, including ensuring data secrecy by controlling access to prevent data leakage. Moreover, the second practice is the integrity to give consistent, accurate, and trusted data,” he explained.

“And last but not least, the digital data availability, namely, systems, applications, and accessed data also plays an important role in maintaining the cyber security to prevent the financial system from being manipulated by third parties,” he added. 

The webinar ran well and interactively as many participants asked various questions on the same occasion. For additional information, Equityworld Futures has also tied a collaboration with Udinus in the Independent Campus Program, particularly in the form of an internship program participated by students of the Economics and Business Faculty. (Humas Udinus/Haris. Foto: Humas Udinus)