VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Australian Embassy in Jakarta received this year’s New Colombo Plan (NCP) recipients at a welcome ceremony last night (23/01/2020) to congratulate students on their participation in the program. The Australian Government grants the New Colombo Plan as a financial aid for students who embark on study and internship programs across the Indo-Pacific region.

Speakers at the event, including Oka Simanjuntak, chairman of Australian Mining Infrastructure Resources Energy Chamber for Indonesia and the CEO of IBM, acknowledged the economic and cultural value of the grant to both countries. Mr Simanjuntak told the reception how strongly he has enjoyed being a host to international interns since 2015, but nodded to the need for more flexibility in the program.

“So the NCP is actually extremely important for Indonesia because by having Australian students come out here and placed in numerous hosts all over Jakarta and other cities as well, you are actually bringing a bit of Australia to Indonesia, and allow Indonesians to learn a lot from you as much as you learn a lot from Indonesia.”

“I have children and I wish that one day they could go to Australia to study. If they can't do that, I wish that more Australian students could come to Indonesia and my children can learn from them right here in Indonesia. So I do hope more students will come out here not just to do short internship programmes but longer programmes as well. This is my hope for the future.”

Mr Simanjuntak passed on his thanks to the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) and its partner organisations, Atma Jaya Catholic University and the NCP program for facilitating the internship and study opportunities in Indonesia. (VOI/LAURA GREEN)