British Aerospace offers scholarship to Indonesians

JAKARTA (JP): British Aerospace announced here yesterday that it will provide a post-graduate scholarship to Indonesians to honor B.J. Habibie for further developing aircraft technology.

"The scholarship will be awarded every year to an Indonesian post-graduate student selected by Habibie," said Tim Martin, the regional director of British Aerospace in Indonesia.

He added that the scholarship program is called the Habibie Scholarship.

According to Martin, the selected student will attend a master course for one year in Cranfield University, which he claimed is one of the best aerospace universities in the world.

Saying that the British company will pay for the scholarship, he said that the program will start as soon as Habibie selects a student.

He said the Indonesian student will have the chance to apprentice at British Aerospace and other aerospace companies in Britain.

British Aerospace, which has a 25 percent stake in Airbus Industrie, designs, develops and manufactures civil and military aircraft, guided weapon systems, guns and ammunition.

The company, which manufactures aircraft such as the Hawk and supersonic Concorde, has annual sales of six billion poundsterling (US$9.2 billion) and employs 45,000 people.

Indonesia ordered 24 Hawks in 1993 from British Aerospace with a contract value of $650 million with an offset arrangement. (13)