Indonesia to give 1,000 scholarships to Pak students

KARACHI: Indonesia announces 1,000 scholarships for Pakistani students to further improve friendly and cordial ties between the two nations.

While giving a briefing on plans for 2021, Consul for Information and Socio-Cultural Affairs, Consulate of Indonesia, Ibnu Sulhan, said his government has devised a comprehensive plan to bring the people of the two nations closer and for that a free Indonesian language course would be offered to the students from April. He said the trade between both countries, has gradually increased at a record pace despite of the corona pandemic. He said on the directives of Indonesian government, the Consulate in Karachi is working on the plan to strengthen the cultural and social bonds between the two nations. He said Pakistani students have been offered 1,000 scholarships at 23 top universities of Indonesia offering graduation, masters and PhD courses, Sulhan said.

The Consul for Information & Socio-Cultural Affairs said the applications for the fully-funded student scholarships would remain open from April 25, to August 2021. He hoped to gradually increase the number of the scholarships. The envoy said to further strengthen the ties between two nations at business and culture sectors, the Indonesian government has decided to launch a free virtual language course. Simultaneously, a web series would soon be started on social media highlighting different aspects of Indonesia, while a web portal of the Indonesian Consulate is also in the pipeline. He said the Consulate is facilitating investors from Pakistan to invest in Indonesia and vice versa.

The Consul said Karachi’s business community is very important for Indonesia as a large chunk of their trade depends on the business community living here.