The Hon Stephen Smith MP, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Australian Commonwealth Coat of Arms

The Hon Stephen Smith mp

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade

Minister Smith remarks at opening of 2000th school in Indonesia

Speaking remarks

Madrasah Balaraja, Kampung Iwul, Tangerang, Banten Province, Indonesia

15 July 2010

To my friend and colleague, Marty Natalegawa, Foreign Minister of Indonesia,
to the Director General of Islamic Education from the Ministry of Religious Affairs,
to the Director General of Primary and Secondary Education from the Ministry of National Education to the Regent of Tangerang district,
to the Principal of Madrasah Balaraja,
and to the teachers, parents and the school community — thank you very much for your warm welcome today.

I'm very pleased to be here today at your invitation to join with Marty Natalegawa to officially open the 2000th school built under the Australia Indonesia Basic Education Program. Two years ago in South Sulawesi, I opened the 1000th school, the Pallanga Junior Secondary School.

Australia and Indonesia are, of course, neighbours, strategic partners but most importantly, firm friends. And of all the things we do together, I think helping to give young children the chance of a good education is the best and the finest of all of the things we do.

And that's why whether it's a young Indonesian boy or girl, or a young Australian boy or girl, the most important thing we can do for them is give them the chance of a good education.

And as a firm friend, we want to do our bit to help Indonesia meet its commitment of nine years of basic education for every Indonesian boy and girl.

As well as our basic education program, we also encourage Indonesian students to study in Australia with a scholarship program that we are expanding in the future.

So hopefully, one day, we'll have a student from Balaraja School that gets a scholarship to study at the Australian National University like the Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

So I'm very pleased to be here today, to join with Marty, to officially open the school.

And while we're still finalising some details, our Basic Education Program and our Schools Building Program will continue.

So far the building of 2000 schools has seen over 330,000 Indonesian boys and girls get the chance of an education.

So we look very much forward at some stage over the next couple of years to also officially opening the 3000th school under our partnership.

Thank you very much please enjoy the day.

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