Australian scholarships for Indonesia to continue

JAKARTA (JP): Despite the turbulence in its relations with Indonesia, Australia is maintaining its cooperation in the educational field with its Asian neighbor.

Australian ambassador to Indonesia John McCarthy on Monday launched the Australian Government Scholarship Program for 300 Indonesian students for next year.

Under the grant program, each student receives A$ 25,000,000 per year to undertake postgraduate studies at Australian universities.

According to the ambassador, the fund is offered for the study of economic governance, political and social development, agriculture, health, natural resources management, science and engineering.

"We maintained our development assistance programs throughout the recent difficulties between the two countries. And, the scholarship program is the most important element of that," McCarthy commented.

The ambassador was speaking at the opening of a two-day conference here entitled " New Indonesian Challenges and The ADS (Australian Development Scholarship) Scheme".

McCarthy said he believed the scholarship program will develop personal and institutional links between Australia and Indonesia that will sustain and nourish the relationship between these countries into the future.

There are currently over 900 Indonesians studying in Australia under Australian government scholarships. They are part of a total of 18,000 Indonesians studying in Australia this year.

Since the scholarship program commenced in the 1950s, the Australian government has sponsored the studies of over 7,500 Indonesians in Australia.

The conference is being held to help the Australian and Indonesian governments review progress and identify the problems involved in the program.

Dozens of participants were in attendance, including Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) rector Lilik Hendrajaya, Secretary- general of the Ministry of National Education Hidayat Syarief and scholar Mochtar Buchori.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the conference, the ambassador reiterated that Australia fully recognizes Indonesia's territorial integrity, including Irian Jaya.

"We have repeatedly said that we respect the territorial integrity of Indonesia," McCarthy told reporters. (zen)