Reliving the Dream with DDTC: Presenting in The 10th CISAK in South Korea

It all started out as a small talk.

Being able to present an academic research paper in front of other scholars may be the dream of almost all students, but only a few are able to actualize them. We were certainly not among those few people. Thankfully, on one ordinary day at KaFE (Kantin FE, our campus canteen), those words got out, “Let’s join an international conference.” From then on, things went unbelievably fast, from conference searching, submitting abstracts, writing final paper, until the conference in South Korea. Our choice went to The 10th Conference of Indonesian Students in South Korea (CISAK). It has been held for 10 consecutive years proving its credibility and we were sure that the conference would give us something valuable.

The three of us come from different year at university, at the time of paper writing, Pratikto Listio Wibowo was in 6th semester, Angela Monalisa in her 4th semester, while Nur Thoyyibah was only in 2nd semester. However, we fill each other’s gap just right. More importantly, we do have the same vision: to be more than our current state! However, the great thing that we’re pursuing was a bit unreachable for us alone. We needed support from external party and that helping hand came from Danny Darussalam Tax Center. DDTC, in the most altruistic way, gave us invaluable guidance in writing the paper and supporting our journey to South Korea. Our abstract got accepted and we were invited to the conference on July 22nd-23rd 2017, so here we were!

It was summer in South Korea and the weather was not much different from what is in Indonesia. However, our eyes see a totally different world! The feeling was so great to be able to go somewhere else on the globe. Besides, this was not a mere voyage because we were going to present something that we researched ourselves. Our conference was held in Daejeon, the fifth-largest metropolis in South Korea. It is also home to many research and educational institution, namely University of Research and Technology South Korea (where the conference took place), KAIST, ETRI, etc.

Generally speaking, the knowledge sharing between scholars from different background there was unforgettable. We got new knowledge from Biotechnology, Informatics, Psychology, and so much more. In return, they also got something from our presentation about The Impact of Corporate Tax Reduction on Tax Compliance and Tax Revenue in Indonesia. Mind you, the experience was fantastic. The feeling of people being fascinated at your idea was invaluable. Sharing is beautiful!

Other than paper and poster presentations, The 10th CISAK also prepared some keynote speakers. Mr. Gandeva Bayu Satrya, a Tel-U Informatics lecturer who is also pursuing a Ph.D degree in South Korea, gave his speech about security challenge and opportunity in the digital-age. His opening speech was great because he was also an experienced practitioner, he even helped our ministry in the recent policy about social media. On the second day, Mr. Fajrin Rasyid as Co-Founder and CFO of Bukalapak.com, a big e-commerce company in Indonesia, also shared his thoughts about social empowerment through interdisciplinary collaboration. And at the end of the event, a sharing session given by scholarships awardee was given. It sure was a mind-opening one!

All in all, two days felt too short while at the same time super-exciting. We thank DDTC for the awesome chance. Thank you for trusting us and giving us the opportunity to relive our dream! Our endless gratitude would also go to Mr Darussalam, Mr Danny Septriadi and Mr. Bawono Kristiaji for the time given to lecture us his broad mind about the taxation system. This will be our first international event, but we won’t make it our last. Gomabseubnida, DDTC!