US to give education assistance to Indonesia

Antara News, Thursday, September 23, 2010

Yogyakarta  (ANTARA News) - The United States government will give education assistance amounting to US$165 million to Indonesia for five years.

"The assistance will be focused on students exchange program and basic education development," US Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel said here on Thursday.

Marciel made the remark during his general lecture at Gajah Mada University, and added that the US government would also promote better education for the people, both in Indonesia and in the United States.

"Our cooperation with Indonesia in the education field for the past 18 months was intensively made to step up the quality of education," Marciel said.

He said the US government this year would also open the opportunity for 700 students from Indonesia and other countries to study in the United States.

"The opportunity is given by hundreds of institutions including several colleges in the United States," Marciel said, admitting the the number of students from Indonesia and other countries in the US in the past few years had dropped drastically.

"It was because of the impact of economic crisis and other conditions in education in the United States," he said, adding that only around 14,000 foreign students including from Indonesia were studying in the US in the past 10 years, but at present there were about 7,000 students.

Therefore he said it was important for the country to make more intensive cooperation in education field with other countries, including Indonesia.

He said the US government would like to cooperate with Indonesia in various fields to overcome the problems of corruption, social issue, and climate change.

Earlier in the day the US envoy met with Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X to introduce himself as the new US ambassador to Indonesia.

"I met with Sri Sultan to introduce myself as the new US ambassador to Indonesia and for a dialog on cultural and education issues in Yogyakarta," Marciel said.