Airlangga Sutarto, chairman of House of Representatives (DPR)`s Commission VI, made the remark in a meeting with visiting Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson at the parliament building here on Wednesday.
Sutarto explained there had been a consistent decline in the number of Australian students studying in Indonesia after the issuance of travel warnings by the Australian government in the recent years. He therefore asked Canberra to withdraw the travel warnings issued before.
He said if the travel warnings remain then they will become an obstacle in the expected enhancement economic and trade relations between the two countries via the comprehensive economic partnership agreement. Both Indonesia and Australia would be disbenefit by the prolonged travel warnings.
Indonesia`s loss is apparent in this regard, Sutarto said, because the warnings have prevented many Australian students from studying in Indonesia so that there will be no revenues reaped by the country from this educational sectors.
On the other hand, there are at least 14,000 Indonesian students averagely studying every year in Australia who each spends some 15,000 US dollars per year.
Indonesia has also been disadvantaged by the decreasing number of Australian students studying in this country because there are less Australian learning Bahasa Indonesia as their second language after English.
In the meeting Minister Emerson said that he has taken notice of the request and will take them for discussion with the Australian government.
Minister Emerson in a visit to Indonesia for talks with his counterpart Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu and chairman of the DPR`s Commission VI which also deals with trade issues. This visit was aimed at preparing the planned comprehensive economic partnership.
The visit by Minister Emerson is a follow up to the talk between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Indonesia in November 2010 that had started the process of CEPA.
(Uu.KR-VFT/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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