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)