BICBATT 2026

Executive summary

The conference focused on how businesses and institutions can support the SDGs through resilient management, responsible taxation, and tourism that benefits local communities and ecosystems. The most actionable themes were to measure sustainability outcomes—not just make commitments—strengthen governance and risk oversight, and build solutions with local stakeholders.

Key business and organizational insights

Regenerative tourism and community resilience

Associate Professor Ignatius P. Cahyanto presented research on two tourism villages in Tabanan Regency, Bali. He argued that a tourism designation is only a starting point: villages need management capacity, partnerships, investment, and governance to turn tourism activity into lasting community benefit.

• Village “balance sheet” and risk register
  • Track community assets across seven forms of capital: human, cultural, social, political/institutional, financial, natural, and built.
  • Distinguish stocks (assets held) from flows (investment, training, partnerships, and other activity that builds or maintains them).
  • Assess vulnerability through exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.
• Participatory research process: The study used photovoice, in which residents took and discussed photos of local assets and vulnerabilities. Researchers recruited 20 people and completed the process with 15 participants over roughly two months. Photos were geolocated and shared with stakeholders at an exhibition.
• Common barriers to progress: Limited tourism-management skills, outdated or missing plans, constrained funding, weak land-use governance, and competing uses of shared resources.
• How to build momentum: Strengthen links with universities and external partners, involve local youth and entrepreneurs, support locally distinctive products, and improve coordination among tourism groups, businesses, and government. Universities can co-create research, train local tourism groups, and place students where management gaps exist.
• Measure outcomes beyond visitor counts: A proposed dashboard would track asset stocks, annual investment and activity, risks being managed, and—importantly—whether community voices influence decisions.
• Illustrative example: A pop-up coffee business in a rice-field setting attracted many visitors, but its popularity raised new questions about capacity and managing visitor impacts. The example shows that tourism growth can create new vulnerabilities as well as income.
• Main recommendation: Treat a tourism village like an enterprise: build its assets, monitor risks, and judge success by community and ecological outcomes, not just arrivals.

Cahyanto cited tourism’s importance to Bali’s economy—about 60% of provincial GDP—and said that in Tabanan more than 26 villages had been selected as rural tourism sites, while about 70% were closed or stagnant. He also referenced a review of 310 tourism-resilience studies published from 2016 to 2025, which distinguished recovery, adaptive, and transformative resilience.

Carbon accounting for events and tourism

Dr. Aaron Tham discussed how events can measure and reduce their environmental footprint. He emphasized that accounting is still fragmented and often voluntary, particularly for indirect emissions in supply chains.

• Use a full value-chain view: The GHG Protocol’s scopes help distinguish emissions organizations control from emissions associated with purchased energy and wider activities such as travel, accommodation, food, logistics, and suppliers.
• Start collecting operational data: For events, his research approach included attendee origins and event location, then estimating travel emissions across attendees and calculating an average per participant. He stressed that actual records—such as hotel energy bills and meter readings—are more useful than sustainability intentions alone.
• Use AI to reduce data-gathering effort: Digital tenders and supplier records may help estimate emissions associated with food, uniforms, furniture, and logistics, and reveal opportunities to source locally.
• Prioritize high-impact areas: Travel was identified as a major source of event emissions. Other areas include food miles, staff commuting, laundry, venue energy, and water use.
• Distinguish offsets from reductions: Tham cautioned that buying carbon credits does not itself reduce emissions. He discussed carbon sequestration and extraction as emerging options, while noting their cost and infrastructure requirements.
• Practical examples: Tree planting linked to conferences in Bogor can provide carbon absorption and create local livelihoods. Refillable soap dispensers, reduced single-use packaging, light sensors, and better-timed laundry operations can also reduce resource use.
• Industry-wide approach: Businesses, governments, and suppliers need shared incentives, training, reporting, and standards. He cited France’s restriction on flying for some domestic corporate-event trips within a two-hour flight distance, favoring rail or bus instead.
• Aviation example: He described sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as an emerging option and cited blending of up to roughly 30% SAF with conventional fuel as an example of current progress.

Tham also noted the scale of the opportunity: some major congresses involve more than 1,700 attendees from around 58 countries. He pointed to 2027 as the UN International Year for Sustainable and Resilient Tourism.

Health, medical, and wellness tourism

Keynote speaker Dr. Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno framed health and wellness tourism as a potential growth area for Indonesia, provided development produces local benefits and earns visitor trust.

• Combine modern health care with Indonesian cultural and traditional assets, including jamu, local cuisine, spa services, nature, and cultural heritage.
• Develop community-based wellness experiences in rural areas as well as urban centers.
• Prioritize visitor safety, service quality, credible standards, digital innovation, responsible investment, and global trust.
• Measure success through the three Ps—people, planet, and prosperity—including jobs, green jobs, business opportunities, and benefits for local communities, not simply visitor numbers.
• In response to a question about fires affecting Tanjung Puting, Uno urged stakeholders to avoid blame and focus on community empowerment and protecting natural and cultural assets. Cahyanto added that destinations need tourism-specific crisis plans, clear responsibilities, and procedures that account for visitors who may not speak the local language.

Uno cited estimates that global wellness tourism could reach US$1.1 trillion in 2026 and nearly US$2.5 trillion by 2035. He said Indonesian tourism contributed about 5% of national GDP in 2025, equivalent to roughly Rp1,138 trillion, and cited approximately 6,300 tourism villages in Indonesia.

International tax rules and corporate governance

Professor Victor (surname inconsistently transcribed in the subtitles) described the shift from rules built around physical presence and separate legal entities toward more coordinated international tax rules.

• BEPS and the two-pillar framework: The OECD/G20 BEPS project seeks to address base erosion and profit shifting. Pillar One concerns taxing certain digital and cross-border activity without relying solely on physical presence; Professor Victor said agreement remains unresolved. Pillar Two introduces a 15% global minimum effective tax through mechanisms that can allow another jurisdiction to impose top-up tax.
• Business implications: The changes may make aggressive profit shifting harder, but increase compliance complexity and may contribute to double taxation. Professor Victor argued that minimum-tax rules could reduce the effectiveness of tax incentives offered by developing countries and raise questions about national tax-policy sovereignty. This was his assessment of the policy trade-off.
• Governance implication: Tax strategy and compliance should receive board-level attention. The speaker noted that companies may publicly claim compliance while maintaining internal cultures that treat aggressive tax minimization as a management objective.
• Global governance: Professor Victor described a growing role for the UN in international tax discussions alongside the OECD, with developing countries seeking a more inclusive forum.

Associate Professor Dr. Catur Retno Mayanti explained how internal governance can turn sustainability commitments into business practice, using Indonesia’s two-tier governance model.

• Key governing bodies: The shareholders’ General Meeting sets major direction and approves key matters; the Board of Commissioners supervises and advises; the Board of Directors manages operations and makes strategic decisions.
• Oversight mechanisms: Audit committees oversee financial reporting and internal controls; risk committees monitor business and technology risks; nomination and remuneration committees oversee leadership selection and incentives. Internal audit and compliance functions support assurance.
• Apply governance to strategy: Sustainability should be built into business decisions, budgets, procedures, and staff practices—not limited to sustainability reports or public claims.
• Manage conflicts of interest: Effective oversight can challenge decisions that benefit executives at the company’s expense, such as excessive spending on executive perks.
• Use transparent, accountable reporting: Mayanti said tax and carbon-related disclosures can be considered within governance, alongside financial and non-financial reporting.
• Examples: The Enron scandal illustrates how weak oversight and internal controls can contribute to misleading reporting and major corporate losses. Mayanti also referred to the Garuda case in discussing financial-reporting oversight.
• Governance principles: She referenced TARIF—transparency, accountability, responsibility, independence, and fairness.

Metrics and targets cited

• Conference participation: 55 participants, presenters, and contributors from 10 countries.
• Universitas Brawijaya ranking: QS World University Ranking 616th for 2027, up 64 places from 680 the previous year, according to the opening remarks.
• FIA accreditation: The opening remarks said the Faculty of Administrative Sciences became the first Indonesian institution accredited by the International Accreditation Council for Business Education in 2024. Its Master of Public Administration program also holds international accreditation from AQUAS.
• Bali tourism: Approximately 60% of Bali’s GDP; Tabanan had over 26 designated tourism villages, with around 70% reportedly closed or stagnant.
• Wellness tourism: Projected at US$1.1 trillion in 2026 and nearly US$2.5 trillion by 2035.
• Indonesia tourism: About 5% of national GDP in 2025, or Rp1,138 trillion, as cited by Uno.
• Tourism villages: Approximately 6,300 nationwide, as cited by Uno.
• International taxation: 15% global minimum effective tax under Pillar Two.
• Events: Some congresses exceed 1,700 attendees from 58 countries; Tham cited SAF blending of up to about 30% as an example.

Presenters and sources

Opening remarks were delivered by Anisa (surname unclear in the subtitles), Professor Hamidah Nayati Utami, and Professor Widodo.

Plenary speakers were Associate Professor Ignatius P. Cahyanto, Dr. Aaron Tham, Dr. Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, Professor Victor (surname inconsistently transcribed), and Associate Professor Dr. Catur Retno Mayanti. Moderators were Dr. Annie Rahima (name varies slightly in the captions) and Dr. Astri Widyaharsi. The master of ceremonies was Brigita Joy.

Source: FIA UB Official