Festival for children opened

JAKARTA (JP): The second annual World of Children's Festival (Pesta Dunia Anak)-Edufair Jakarta '97 is open, featuring services and products geared toward children's development.

Z.A. Achmady, director general for basic and middle education, opened the festival at the Jakarta Convention Center yesterday.

The festival's public relations manager, Hesty, said she expected 50,000 visitors at the five-day event, 15,000 more than last year.

Hesty said many of the visitors were parents in their thirties with at least two or three children aged 12 or less.

Parents can buy the products and services on display including clothing at Rp 32.500 (US$13.50), a bed modeled like a red sports car for Rp 1.48 million ($616), and a year's tuition at Pelita Harapan school, from $5,000 for kindergarten up to $7,500 for high school.

Forty-three companies including leading consumer goods companies, banks, insurance companies, private schools and publishing companies are taking part in the festival.

The event was organized by Bisnis Asia in cooperation with ABN-AMRO Bank, Lippo Life insurance company, the theme park Sea World and private school Pelita Harapan.

Contests like crawling contests for babies, use of computers, reading of children's stories, will be held by different sponsors.

The Lippo group of companies plans to hold a different contest most days, drawing on T-shirts, Friday, singing karaoke, Saturday, and animal sculpture in wax on Sunday. (01)