The Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE) recently received approval from Senator the Hon Bob Carr, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, to commence negotiations on the Australia Indonesia Agreement on Science and Technology Treaty.
Establishing a science and technology treaty with Indonesia will provide an umbrella framework for supporting the growing engagement that several Australian science and research institutions such as CSIRO, Questacon and the Australian Academy of Sciences, are undertaking with Indonesia. Several Australian universities are also developing Indonesian engagement strategies with research cooperation a core element of those strategies. Additionally, Australia is a priority research partner country for Indonesia, ranked third most frequent partner for collaborative papers in 2009, after Japan and USA.
DIISRTE, in consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Attorney General’s Department, CSIRO and the Australian Academy of Sciences, is undertaking negotiations with the Indonesian Ministry for Science, Research and Technology to finalise the text of the treaty.