BBC Worldwide Monitoring

May 22, 2001

Source: Excerpt from unattributed report by Indonesian newspaper Kompas

Cyber Media web site (www.kompas.com) on 22 May

Indonesia: New Zealand team visits Irian Jaya to assess conditions Jayapura: The New Zealand government has promised to help the Irian Jaya regional government empower the local community. This was raised by Dr Timothy Hannah, who led the team sent by the New Zealand government to Irian Jaya. The team met with the deputy head of Irian Jaya Bappeda

Regional Development Planning Agency , Naury, in Jayapura on Monday (21 May).

The team also included the New Zealand deputy head of mission to

Indonesia, Andrea Smith, who gathered information on the economic, education, health and social conditions being faced on the ground.

"The team is not only focusing on Irian Jaya but visiting all areas of Indonesia. We will compile the figures and information, evaluate what we have in Jakarta and then report to our government," said Timothy.

Naury told the team that the most pressing problems at the moment were health, education and economics. These three areas seem to remain complicated every year even though the government has already allocated large amounts of funds to overcome the problems.

Education was one of the most worrisome areas as primary and middle school students are often illiterate and unable to add up especially in the interior of Irian Jaya. The local economy in the area is also 99 per cent controlled by outside entrepreneurs.