Universitas Indonesia (UI) and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) carried out a groundbreaking for the construction of the UI—BRI Work Startup Center at the Balairung Annex Building, UI Depok Campus, this afternoon (Wednesday, 22/11). To mark the start of the groundbreaking ceremony, a symbolic ribbon cutting was carried out represented by the UI Vice Rector for Human Resources and Assets, Prof. Dr. Ir. Dedi Priadi, DEA., and Division Head, Distribution Network BRI Ivan Amirudin.
According to Prof. Dedi, UI continues to be committed to creating many startups. Based on this desire, apart from creating various programs that can encourage the birth of startups, UI also needs to provide an ecosystem, such as UI—BRI Work Startup Center.
“The collaboration between UI and BRI is not only in the form of buildings but there also will be various activities that support the needs of students and startups in meeting their needs in the future. This activity will also be integrated with existing activities in the UI environment. Hopefully, this collaboration can be realized smoothly, so that it will create many startups, both from students, lecturers, and educational staff at UI,” said Prof. Dedi.
The construction of the UI—BRI Work Startup Center is a form of collaboration between UI and BRI, in order to facilitate and support improving the quality of higher education administration, both academic and non-academic, especially in the startup sector. This building will be built with the concept of a combination of banking services and co-working space that is integrated with the university ecosystem. Later, the building will be equipped with several facilities, such as indoor and outdoor lounges, banking teller, startup room, UKK room, meeting room, outdoor amphitheater, outdoor and indoor co-working, banking assistant, ATM, artwork, private pods, and other supporting facilities.
UI Cooperation Director Dr. Toto Pranoto in his report said, apart from the provided venue, this collaboration will also provide assistance to startup players to help them grow and develop. Through this collaboration, it is hoped that it will become a forum for bringing together startups and investors. This will also be integrated with regular activities at UI, such as the UI Investment & Start Up Forum.
Meanwhile, the financial services and products that will be present in this building will also be served using the latest banking technology. “Therefore, with a design concept that is different from the appearance of bank offices in general, it is hoped that this will be able to fulfill what customers expect today, especially fellow students,” said Ivan.
Furthermore, by using this technology, the aim is for students to get used to interacting with banking. “Perhaps, so far students have considered banking as a formal and rigid institution. Therefore, we want to be closer to young people and they can get used to banking through this technology,” said Regional Banking Head Jakarta 2 BRI Andreas Chandra Santoso.
He added by giving an example, such as if an ATM card is lost, usually the customer has to meet a bank officer to take care of the loss and get a new card. However, with this technology, it becomes easier for customers to take care of it, that is, in just five minutes, customers can get a new card.
“Of course we also hope that our fellow students who will often interact with us at UI-BRI Work Startup Center can provide suggestions and input regarding this technology. With that, we can develop this innovation which continues to be adapted to needs,” said Andreas.
