Australia is kicking off big promo

Australia is kicking off big promo

JAKARTA (JP): Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Gareth Evans and Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade
Hartarto launched Australia's biggest ever trade and cultural
promotion program, Australia Today Indonesia 94, last night.

The A$12 million (US$8.8 million) event was opened at the
National Museum with the sounding of a gong by Hartarto and the
cutting of a string of flowers by Evans.

The Australian jazz band Ten Part Invention and theater group
Stretch MK1 performed in the center court.

Photos, paintings, glass sculptures and unique Aboriginal
fabrics were among the various items exhibited around the
grounds, which were artistically lighted by bamboo oil lamps.

Evans in his opening speech explained that the ATI mascot, the
"bionic kangaroo" Techno Joe, which lined the foreground of the
museum, represents Australia both as a big country with strange
and exotic animals and a nation that is developing some of the
world's most innovative technology.

Events of the ATI 94 -- ranging from business, education, law
and political conferences, a 200-member trade mission, trade
exhibitions, sport programs and naval visits to arts and
entertainment presentations -- will take place from June 14 to
July 3. Some of the programs will also go beyond this period.

ATI 94 will showcase the Australia of the 1990s, "a nation
that is multiculturally diverse, culturally sophisticated and
technologically advanced, as well as free thinking, vibrant and
alive," Evans said.

He acknowledged the rapid changes which have taken place in
both countries over the past 10 years and pointed out that
currently both "no longer feel trapped by that twist of fate
which made us geographically close but in every way very
different...but is now replaced by a new cooperation and trust".

Incomplete

Quoting Prime Minister Paul Keating in Sydney three months
ago, Evans said no country is more important to Australia than
Indonesia. "If we fail to get this relationship right...the whole
web of our foreign relations is incomplete."

Keating himself is slated to come to Jakarta to lend further
credence to the program. His June 26-27 visit will also be his
third to Indonesia in the last 18 months.

Evans said there was still much to be done in promoting
contact and understanding at the crucial business-to-business and
people-to-people levels.

He cited, for example, a stereotyped image of Australia held
by many Indonesians that Australia still exercises a white
Australia policy. "We buried the policy a generation ago, but
surveys show most Indonesians still think we have a
discriminatory immigration policy."

"But we have to communicate that new reality," he said.

Evans also pointed out that most Indonesians are not aware
that Australia is a modern and advanced country, "this despite
the fact that we are the third biggest economy in the whole Asian
region and that Australia and New Zealand together have a greater
national income than all six ASEANs combined".

Mutual event

Evans emphasized that ATI 94, which involves about 500
Australian organizations and 1,500 individuals, is a mutual event
and an opportunity for two-way communication and interaction, as
it exposes many business people, opinion leaders, scientists,
artists, journalists and sports people to one another.

Hartarto expressed his optimism that the event will contribute
significantly to bilateral cooperation in almost all respects.

Hartarto, who is also Patron for ATI 94, explained that
Indonesia's new deregulation package, announced last week, is
expected to encourage more foreign investment in Indonesia.

"It has been our determination to continually improve our
economic climate and with the new deregulation package announced
last week, I expect more Australian investment to flow to
Indonesia," he said.

Trade volume between the two countries reached US$2.17 billion
last year, with Indonesian exports to Australia valued at $773
million and Indonesian imports from Australia at $1.39 billion.

The volume of Australian investment from 1967 to 1994 reached
$1.50 billion, from 140 projects.

Evans was in Indonesia for only 9 hours. He left Jakarta after
the ceremony. (pwn)

Manpower -- Page 3

Editorial -- Page 4