No great walls for RI students in China
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Pursue knowledge even if you have to go to as far as China. So goes an old Indonesian adage whose truth still rings true for those who believe in the power of education.
But 23 years of broken diplomatic ties between Indonesia and China had made this advice difficult to follow.
And even after relations between the two countries resumed in 1990, it was still easier to acquire information about studying in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom or the Netherlands than in China.
This will soon change, however, with the upcoming China Education Exhibition 2003 organized by educational institutions Unilink Professindo and Universal Language Program, which is to be held this weekend at the Kirana Ballroom, Hotel Kartika Chandra, in South Jakarta.
"The success of last year's China Education Fair proved that there is a great interest among the Indonesian public about studying in China," said Sudjadi Sudjianto, an organizer of the exhibition and marketing manager of Unilink Professindo.
In cooperation with the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) -- which is affiliated to the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Education -- the exhibition will feature 32 Chinese educational institutes, including the prestigious Beijing University and Tsing Hua University.
The aims of the exhibition include introducing the Chinese education system to the Indonesian public, providing information on the various levels of education on offer, and providing a bridge between Indonesians and educational institutes in China.
"Last year the number of Indonesian students studying in China stood at 2,500 out of a total of about 80,000 foreign students," Sudjadi said, adding that Indonesia ranked fourth in the number of students studying in China.
A desire to learn Chinese languages is the main reason why many Indonesians choose to study in China.
Chinese, or its dialects, is spoken by over 1 billion people, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. The majority of the Chinese-speaking population is found in China and Taiwan, with considerable numbers also found in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
With China's emergence as a world economic power, the importance of learning Chinese cannot be underestimated.
"It is predicted that China will become a new center of world business and trade. So businessmen feel the need to prepare themselves for that, to aid them in expanding their businesses, and improve their cooperation with China," Sudjadi said. The China Education Exhibition 2003 will be held on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19 at the Kirana Ballroom, Hotel Kartika Chandra, Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta. Entry is free and the exhibition is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.