JAYAPURA—The Papua Provincial Government received the Australia Award in Indonesia (AAI) Audience Team in the Papua Provincial Government meeting room, Thursday, January 23, 2025. The meeting was attended by Papua Regional Secretary Yohanes Walilo, Assistant 3 for General Administration of the Papua Regional Secretariat, Heads of Agencies, and Echelon 3 Officials within the Papua Provincial Government.

Tia Naibaho, one of the representatives from AAI, said that their arrival was to offer a scholarship program to ASN of the Papua Provincial Government as well as to the general public financed by AAI through the Australia Awards Program.

The Australia Awards or Scholarship Awards Program offers Scholarship Programs for Master's to Doctoral degrees. "This program has existed since 1953, so it has been 73 years since this organization was built and became part of the cooperation between the Australian and Indonesian Governments in the field of Education. There are already around five hundred graduates from this program who have spread throughout Indonesia and Papua," said Tia Naibaho.

On the same occasion, Assistant 3 for General Administration of the Papua Regional Secretariat Ani Rumbiak said that the Australia Awards Scholarship Program is a very strategic partnership between the government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Government of Australia and we heard that it has been 73 years since this organization was built and of course has produced several graduates throughout Indonesia. "We hope that this program will continue to run continuously to provide opportunities for civil servants and the Papuan people to improve their academic abilities and global insight through this collaboration," said Ani Rumbiak.

Registration for this Scholarship Program will be open from February to April 2025. 15 provinces will be the priority of the Australia Awards program, including Papua. For selected participants, there will be a one-year language course training and access assistance in filling out registration forms for the interview process. "The administrative and selection process in certain professions has their standards, while Papua is one of 15 provinces as the target of this program, we provide easy access to register so that when registering it will be able to minimize the existing obstacles," said Tia.

Following up on this Audience, the Regional Secretary of Papua, Yohanes Walalo, gives high appreciation and will hold a meeting to socialize this program online to all districts/cities in Papua. "This program is a great opportunity for the Papua Provincial Government and the community. I hope that many Papuan children will register for this program so that the development of Papuan human resources can have an impact on the development of Papua," said Yohanes Walilo. ***