Twenty two Indonesians awarded Australian Leadership Awards

Australian Charge d’Affaires for Indonesia, H.E. Ms Louise Hand, announced today that 22 Indonesians will be commencing post-graduate study in Australia next year under a new scholarships program, the Australian Leadership Awards (ALA).

“The recipients come from a variety of public, private, and community sectors in Indonesia. They will travel to Australia from January 2007 for post-graduate study in a broad range of fields including economics, education, law, medicine, environmental science, and political science, “said Ms Hand.

The Australian Leadership Awards is a new scholarship program offered in Indonesia as part of the $1.4 billion Australian Scholarships regional program. ALA are offered across the Asia Pacific region on a competitive basis.

These prestigious awards are targeted towards current and future leaders from public, private and community sectors. These leaders play an important role in influencing social and economic reform and development outcomes.

“The Australian Scholarships initiative demonstrates the high value that Australia places on building relationships with Indonesia and other countries in the region, based on mutual understanding, respect and people-to-people linkages informed by education,” said Ms Hand.

ALA provide scholarships for longer-term post-graduate study at masters or doctoral level and fellowships for short-term research, study or professional attachments. The program focuses on areas such as infectious diseases, health, governance, trans-national crime, trade and clean energy. This will strengthen knowledge and understanding on these key issues that affect the Asia Pacific region

These ALA scholarships complement the highly regarded Australian Development Scholarships (ADS) program and the Australian Partnership Scholarships. Over the past two years around 1200 scholarships have been awarded to Indonesians for study in Australia.

Further information:
Mia Salim (Public Affairs AusAID) –0812 1070237