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.