By Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson
Posted Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:27pm AEDT
Australian and Indonesian transport ministers have signed a new agreement to work together to improve air safety in Indonesia.
Under Australia’s $24 million assistance package, up to 40 Indonesian air safety inspectors will be trained to international standards.
Speaking in Jakarta, Australian Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the initiative was prompted by the Garuda crash which killed 21 people, including five Australians last March.
“The incident at Yogyakarta, now almost 12 months ago, brought home in a very practical and tragic way that Australian citizens also have a direct interest in safety of transport in Indonesia,” he said.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news
February 1st, 2008
JAKARTA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Indonesian and Australian governments have signed a preliminary pact to improve Indonesia’s transport safety and broaden levels of cooperation between the two countries, the Australian embassy said on Thursday.
“It is essential the travelling public of both countries have confidence that transport safety is a priority and that lessons from previous transport accidents are being acted upon,” Australian Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.
Under the transport safety pact, Australia will provide almost 200 billion rupiah ($21.54 million) over three years for training and technical assistance.
Indonesia has suffered a string of airline accidents in recent years, raising questions about safety standards and prompting the European Union in June to ban Indonesian planes from flying to EU nations.
Australia has worked closely with Indonesia in investigating a Garuda Indonesia crash in Yogyakarta in March 2007 that killed more than 20 people. Five Australians were among the dead.
Air travel in Indonesia has grown since the sector was deregulated in 1999, leading to a proliferation of new airlines. ($1 = 9,285 rupiah) (Reporting by Mita Valina Liem; Editing by Sugita Katyal and Katie Nguyen)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/
February 1st, 2008