Thursday 3 July 2014

Ground Rules of Brainstorming

In Indonesia, we are happy to invite people attending a brainstorming meeting. However, mostly the meeting end to hate each other rather than creating an idea. One of the problems is because participant do not understrand the ground rules of brainstorming. When you setup the brainstorming meeting, please make sure you introduces these rules first:

(1) The meeting will mainly concern with quantify the ideas rather than qualify the ideas;
(2) During the meeting there should be no critism of the ideas from anybody (including the chair of the meeting); and
(3) Welcome and open your mind for unusual ideas.

(Thomas, 2013)

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Stealing Public Money Through Subsidy

What is corruption? Sometimes it is very difficult to differentiate corruption with other crimes. For example, when someone stealing money from government, people call it as a corruption. Someone who steals money from government, a public money, is called corruptor. But, why don't we call him or her as thief? I think thief and corruptor is similar. However, a corruptor usually steals a lot of money from government, but a thief steals a little money only. Let's differentiate the term just like that.

Do in an almost zero country like NZ there is no corruption at all? I know a little about this. I just read that even in some universities there had been a problem with the misuse of government funds. However, through a powerful enforcement agency, the misuse of funds would be investigated.

What has been an interesting practice for me is the stealing of money from government. Last week I met two mens. One of them just divorced from his couple. He told me about how a citizen could manipulate the government. In NZ, if your income is under the minimum standard of living, the government will subsidize your income from public funds. One type of subsidies is called Supported Living Payment. You can read more and simulate the scheme from this site:

https://services.workandincome.govt.nz/cos/ieg/Screening.do?executionID=8575009821164568576&playerID=-6593535936284327936&readOnly=null
and
http://www.workingforfamilies.govt.nz/childcare-assistance/

However, there are some people who take job illegally. It could be, for example, a wife working illegally and only the husband working legally. Consequently, not all of their income as a household would be recorded. Then, they would receive subsidize from the government. This is what I call a thief. I heard from those some people practice it just to have more money.

So maybe in a country you would not have many corruptors, but could have many thief. Do you know how to solve this problem?

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Understanding Address in New Zealand

In Indonesia, usually we have an address structure like this:

Nomor (Number)
Alamat (Street Address)
RT/RW (District Code) as an option
Kelurahan/Desa (Suburb)
Kecamatan (Town)
Kota/Kabupaten (City)
Kode Pos (Post Code)

Therefore, an example address would be like this:

[12], [Nangka Street], [RT/RW 10/14], [Utan Kayu], [Matraman], [Jakarta Timur], [13452]

In New Zealand, usually people living in the same address with some of families. They live in a flat or house.To separate the privacy, usually in a site, there would be one of more units for living. The address structure would be like this:

Unit Number
Street Address
Suburb
Town
City
Post Code

An example address would be like this:

[2]/[14],[Chivalry Road], [Glenfield], [North Shore], [Auckland City], [0634]

So, please don’t get confused when you finding home address in New Zealand. Enjoy your visit when you are here.

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Preliminary Study: The Trading Cooperation Between New Zealand - Indonesia

By Rudy M. Harahap and Yetty Martihandayani[1]


Whilst Indonesia is the Southeast Asia's largest economy, there is still less substantial improvement in the trading cooperation between New Zealand and Indonesia during the last five years. The total trade balance between Indonesia and New Zealand increased, but it was very slow. Indonesia is also still the net importer of the trading cooperation. The export to New Zealand from Indonesia increased slowly, but there was a stagnation of import from New Zealand by Indonesia (Figure 1).


Figure 1: Export, Import, and Total Trading from Indonesia to New Zealand.
Source: (Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.)

The main exported products from Indonesia to New Zealand were still related to non-oil and gas products. It seems that there has been a substantial growth in the export of the non-oil and gas products to New Zealand from Indonesia (Figure 2).


Figure 2: Export to New New Zealand from Indonesia
Source: (Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.)

If compared to the Indonesian’s imports from New Zealand, the products were still primarily dominated by non-oil and gas products also (Figure 3). Whilst New Zealand has produced oil and gas, its export to Indonesia was still low and could be stated as in an immaterial number.

To improve this trading, recently there has been more cooperation agreement in how to improve the trading cooperation related to oil and gas products between Indonesia and New Zealand. For example, New Zealand’s government has given more scholarships to many students from Indonesia to learn about geothermal energy. It seems that in the future there could an increase of import from New Zealand by Indonesia related to these products. For example, there is a possibility that Indonesia may import some technical tools related to oil and gas processing from New Zealand.


Figure 3: Import from New Zealand to Indonesia
Source: (Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.)

From the data, we can also interpret that there is a big opportunity to improve the cooperation for both of these countries. For example, the cooperation could be improved through exporting the main commodities of Indonesia (or also exporting the main commodities of New Zealand). The main exported commodities from Indonesia to other countries currently are textile, electronic, rubber and article thereof, palm oil, forest products, footwear, automotive, shrimps, cocoa, and coffee. However, there are also other potential commodities that can be exported from Indonesia to New Zealand, such as leather & leather products, medical instrument and appliances, medicinal herb, processed food, essential oil, fish & fish products, handicraft, jewellery, spices, stationery non-paper (source: the Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia, n.d.).

Mostly, many commodities in New Zealand are imported from other countries, such as China. Whilst Indonesia is nearer from New Zealand (if compared to China), it is an interesting question, why there New Zealand has more trading cooperation with China instead of Indonesia? Why there is no substantial trading cooperation between Indonesia and New Zealand? Currently, the main Indonesia’s trading partners are still Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States of America (New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, n.d.). From this list of countries, there is a possibility that some products imported from China, in fact, are made in Indonesia. Or some products from China not directly imported to New Zealand, but are transferred from Indonesia.

Another possible explanation is because little is known about Indonesia from the perspective of New Zealand people and also reversely about New Zealand from the perspective of Indonesia. Another reason might be New Zealand people a bit wary when doing business with Indonesia people. A business person in New Zealand told me that business poeple in New Zealand still have a bad image about Indonesia, such as the high level of corruption, the difficulty doing business, and so on. I think that we need to understand more about this so we can improve the trading cooperation between Indonesia and New Zealand.

[1] Preliminary study to be submitted for discussion as part of GradForce’s program in supporting graduates from the universities in improving the business opportunities between Indonesia and New Zealand. The authors are the volunteer business analyst for GradForce (http://www.gradforce.co.nz/). All of the analysis is the responsibility of the authors.

References:
  • Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia. (n.d.). 10 Potential Commodities. kemendag.go.id. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.kemendag.go.id/en
  • Ministry of Trade Republic of Indonesia. (n.d.). Balance of Trade With Trade Partner Country. kemendag.go.id. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.kemendag.go.id/en
  • New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. (n.d.). Indonesia. Retrieved March 26, 2014, from https://www.nzte.govt.nz/en/export/export-markets/east-asia/indonesia/



Friday 28 February 2014

Bringing Mostly Recent Children School Reports

Some people misunderstood about children schooling when they bring their children from overseas to New Zealand. Some people told me that it is not important to bring your recent children score reports. It is true that you do not need it if you register your children from elementary or intermediate schools in New Zealand. You do not need to bring it. However, when you register your children to high schools in New Zealand, you have to bring the past score reports. The best schools in Auckland like Westlike Boys School will ask the most recent children score reports. So please bring it!

Tuesday 21 January 2014

International Airline Baggage Allowances to Auckland

If you would like to go to Auckland, please make sure your baggage is not over the airline baggage allowances. Please find the estimation as researched from Internet.


Saturday 11 January 2014

Medical Check Result Submission

When you apply visa to New Zealand Embassy in your country, sometimes you are required to submit your X-Ray check result and Medical Check result. The requirement depends on your visa class. Simply, it is called full medial check up. You shall first take it carefully when submitting the results.

After receiving the results, it is better for you to check the recommendation as stated in the results. The recommendation is written by the leader of the medical check committee of an accredited hospital.

Please make sure that the recommendation clearly state "no significant or abnormal findings". If you read that "abnormal findings (not significant)" or "significant findings" in the medical results, it would be better for you to consult a medical expert first. You have time to revise the recommendation through physical exercise or medical treatment.

If the recommendation does not state clearly as "no significant or abnormal findings", as a normal procedure the NZ Immigration's officer in your country will bring the medical results to Medical Assessor in NZ. The officer should wait the opinion of the Medical Assessor before issuing visa to you.

It means, a "no significant or abnormal findings" recommendation from the medical check committee is very important. If you could not get it, it would delay your application process. It would take about three weeks to get Medical Assessor's opinion.

You may learn a lot of discussion on this forum about medical check up stories: http://www.enz.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=21.

Learning from the forum is very worthy for you.