40 SYLFF scholars meet at UI

40 SYLFF scholars meet at UI

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Depok

Some 40 recipients of the Tokyo Foundation's Ryoichi Sasakawa
Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF) are meeting at the
University of Indonesia (UI) in Depok, West Java, to exchange
ideas on various issues, including the environment.

UI Rector Usman Chatib Warsa said in his opening speech on
Monday that the SYLFF Regional Forum was designed for SYLFF
recipients from around the world who have similar interests and
commitment to know more about SYLFF programs and expand its
international network.

During the three-day meeting, participants -- who are mostly
post-graduate students -- from 12 countries have the opportunity
to listen to speakers including the UI's noted economist M.K.
Tadjudin; Stuart J. Graham of the University of California at
Berkeley, U.S; Rozenda Hendrickse of the University of Western
Cape, South Africa; Zhang Wenhong of the Peking University,
China; Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay of Jadavpur University, India, and
Ellen Mashiko of the Scholarship Division of the Tokyo
Foundation, Japan.

The students come from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Fiji,
Vietnam, the United States, South Africa, Portugal, Thailand, the
Philippines and Malaysia.

The SYLFF, which has forged a cooperation with 66 institutions
in 45 countries around the world, organizes a regular meeting
program called SYLFF Regional Forums -- the North and South
America Forum, Asia-Pacific Forum and Africa-Europe Forum. Each
forum determines its own topic to be discussed in the meeting.

For 2005, the UI, which forged a cooperation with SYLFF in
1990, is hosting the Asia-Pacific Forum, tackling various
environmental issues in the context of globalization.

The first day of the meeting closed on Monday with a tree-
planting ceremony at the university.