Sharing expertise with our neighbours

Indonesian visitors at ACIAR

Indonesian leaders in the field of agricultural research are currently travelling through Australia as part of a two-week visit. They are being exposed to various research management models in order to improve approaches to managing agricultural research in their home country.

The representatives are heads from central government institutions and leaders of provincial research agencies in Indonesia. The visit is hosted by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and co-funded by the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD).

“A similar study tour was conducted in 2007. In the years that followed that initial visit, the participants identified new approaches to research management that were trialled in 4 provinces. One of these has since been rolled out nationwide and others are being developed further,” said Dr Peter Horne, ACIAR’s principal regional coordinator for Indonesia, East Timor and the Philippines.

“The value of the international collaboration was so successful that the Indonesian government approached ACIAR to conduct this tour,” he said.

As part of this current tour, the 22 study tour participants have already visited several research institutions in Queensland prior to braving the Canberra chill during their visit to ACIAR house last Friday (29 June 2012). While in the nation’s capital, they were also invited to a dinner hosted by the Indonesian ambassador.

The delegates are now en route to Australia’s south where they are participating in a tailor-made research management course at the Mount Eliza Business School at the University of Melbourne.

The delegation’s visit comes at a time where Indonesia is on the verge of investing around $100million in revitalising its agricultural research and development systems.

“It’s clear that the Indonesians see the value in further developing agricultural research systems. In the spirit of a maturing relationship this recent visit is equally funded by Indonesia,” said Dr Horne.

“Developing regional capacity is a big part of ACIAR’s work. Ideally, we are sharing our knowledge, skills and experience with the aim that recipients of our assistance can then move to offering their assistance to subsequent neighbours. This kind of investment results in longer-term benefits to our broader region through improvements in areas such as biosecurity and trade,” he said.