A total of 35 representatives from six SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia, consisted of Board of Directors and staff, actively participated in the Inter-Centre Collaboration Meeting held on 17-18 December 2019 at BIOTROP’s Headquarter in Bogor. The meeting agenda covered 1) Programme implementation evaluation year 2019 and 2) Preparation of presentation to the new Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia (MoEC).

During the two-day discussions, the meeting emphasised on GoI fund absorption by the seven SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia in Fiscal Year 2019 and the material to be presented to the Secretary-General of MoEC and staff of the Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia that was planned to be proposed in January 2020. The material, including technical and administrative aspects of the Centres in Indonesia and, was set following three primary concepts of the Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia, namely: 1. “Guru Penggerak”, 2. “SDM Unggul’, and 3. “Merdeka Belajar”.

On the last day of the meeting, Dr Gatot Priyowiryanto, the Director of Secretariat of seven SEAMEO Centres in Indonesia, joined the meeting. In his closing remarks, he said that we have to think smart and intelligent and to synergise with the central units in MoEC. We realise that our human resource is few, with a limited budget, we shall optimise our programme. He closed his remarks by thanking the Centres for the efforts. He also reminded the Centres to concern for the programme that could be implemented in South East Asia and beyond. (rf)