The National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) has conducted a five-day online training program from November 8 to 12, 2021 for the policy planning officials of Indonesian Government.

The program had been conducted annually since 2014 in response to the request from the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS) of Indonesia, with the aim of deepen the understanding of Planning and Administration through lectures and workshop. Taking the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration, the annual inbound program has conducted online this year. Nineteen policy planners from BAPPENAS, other ministries and local government joined the training program from a hotel in Bogor City.

In the program, participants attended 8 lectures to learn the following main topics: Administration of National and Local Government in Japan, Planning for various sectors such as Social and Economic Development, Regional and Local Development, National Land Use and Development, Social Security, Science and Technology Development and Environment Administration.

At the end of each lecture, participants discussed insights and takeaways gained from the lecture in a group discussion followed by a very interactive Q&A session.

Lectures and discussion sessions were mainly featured by GRIPS professors including Senior Professor Kiyotaka Yokomichi, the Program Director (Director of the Executive Development Center for Global Leadershi; Professor Emeritus Masahiro Horie; Professor Emeritus Ikuo Shimomura; Professor Hirofumi Takada; Professor Taichi Ono; Professor Ken Nibayashi; Adjunct Professor Tateo Arimoto; Professor Toshihiro Kudo and Professor Hideka Morimoto (Waseda University / former Administrative Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Environment).

On the last day of the training, participants joined a workshop to address the issues and challenges they face in policy planning back in Indonesia, while comparing the differences between two countries to find possible measures to overcome them.