UK envoy sends off 26 scholarship recipients

Antara News, Wednesday, September 8, 2010 15:50 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - British Ambassador to Indonesia Martin Hatfull on Tuesday sent off 26 Indonesian civil servants who had received scholarships to study at major universities in his country.

In his remarks on the occasion, Hatfull said the scholarship program , funded by the British embassy, British Council and several British institutions in Indonesia, was expected to help further strengthen the existing relationship between the two countries..

"I am delighted that the UK government is able to fund so many talented representatives of Indonesia`s national and local government to develop their skills further in the UK. I am sure that the knowledge and experience they gain will be of real value in helping Indonesia achieve its goals of growth, prosperity and economic reform," he said.

The 26 scholarship recipients came from three Indonesian state institutions such as the Home Affairs Ministry, Finance Ministry and the National Development and Planning Board (Bappenas) who had been selected from 40 applicants in a process started in May 2010.

The British envoy said the program was intended to support Indonesia`s decentralization policies that focus on public service delivery, fiscal decentralization, capacity building and governance also monitoring and evaluation.

The program also aimed to provide high quality decentralization education for central and local government officials on important aspects of public service delivery, principally fiscal decentralization and social accountability.

All the 26 young professionals would pursue a one-year master`s degree programs at several UK universities, namely in Southampton, Bristol, Bradford, Birmingham, Birkbeck New Castle and Manchester.

According to British Council scholarships officer Rowena Rompas, the newly launched program was expectedly to provide more education to Indonesian professional government officers.