Govt to open tourism and telecoms center

Govt to open tourism and telecoms center

JAKARTA (JP): The government will establish an integrated
educational institution, to be called the Center of Excellence,
to prepare qualified personnel to support the country's tourism,
post and telecommunications development.

Secretary-General of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and
Telecommunications Jonathan L. Parapak told reporters here on
Saturday that the plan was one of the results of a two-day
workshop of the ministry.

"Such a facility is needed to prepare human resources in these
three fields. We have chosen Bandung in West Java as the site of
the Center of Excellence," he said, adding that the new
integrated educational institution will be set up soon.

The facility will be an improvement on the existing
telecommunications and tourism schools in Bandung.

The workshop focused on human resources development to
accelerate progress in the tourism, post and telecommunications
sectors within the ongoing Sixth Five-Year Development Plan
(Repelita VI) period which will end in 1999.

The government has targeted the tourism sector to become the
country's major foreign exchange earner by 2005.

Parapak said that there was a plan to establish an information
system which will have access to global networks.

"This system, to be prepared by the government, will be able
to provide any information on the country's tourism industry.
Using this service, we can predict supply and demand in the
sector, as well as demand for manpower," he said.

According to Parapak, all of the plans will be realized within
the next few years and should be ready before 2005. He refused to
give any further details.

The workshop was attended by 200 participants, including
senior ministry officials and top executives of state-owned
companies and professional associations overseen by the ministry.

The workshop also proposed a budget of Rp 144.71 billion
(US$63.2 million) for the ministry in the 1996-1997 fiscal year.

The proposed budget includes Rp 23.36 billion for tourism
promotion and marketing programs, Rp 45.6 billion for the
development of tourism products and Rp 36.57 billion for the
development of postal services. (icn)