When I speak to the citizens of England about Islam in Indonesia, they are very interested."Malang (ANTARA News) - Indonesia, with all its potential, is an important country for the future of the world, according to British Ambassador to Indonesia Moazzam Malik.
"Indonesia is important for the worlds future because it is a vast country, with a population of over 250 million. It is the worlds third-largest democracy and the worlds most populous Muslim nation," Malik remarked during a lecture on "Islam, Education, and The UK" at the Malang Muhammadiyah University here on Tuesday.
Furthermore, he said Indonesia has also become the 16th-largest economy in the world and is ranked fifth globally for issuing the greenhouse mission. Hence, Indonesia is an important country for the future of the world.
As compared to other countries, the British envoy opined that Indonesia has been more capable in curbing extremism.
"When I speak to the citizens of England about Islam in Indonesia, they are very interested. Unfortunately, Indonesias strategic location and abundant natural resources have not been matched by good quality of human resources," Malik said in fluent Indonesian.
He believed that in order to gain competence and realize the big dream of Indonesia, several areas need attention and hard work, two of which are the quality of colleges and religious culture.
"There are many outstanding universities in Indonesia, but none of them are among the worlds top 300 universities," Malik pointed out.
In light of this, he noted that one of his goals when he was posted in Indonesia, as the British ambassador, was to establish cooperation with various campuses in Indonesia.
"I want to attract smart Indonesian students to study in the United Kingdom, with a long-term goal to improve the quality of universities in Indonesia," he explained.
(Uu.O001/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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