Indonesia and Australia sign transport safety and security agreement

Indonesia and Australia sign transport safety and security agreement

2010-12-17 01:28:26 GMT+7 (ICT)

JAKARTA, INDONESIA (BNO NEWS) -- Indonesia and Australia have signed a transport safety and security agreement, further reassuring their bilateral cooperation.

"Today I joined with the Indonesian Minister for Transportation, Freddy Numberi, to sign an Annex to the Memorandum of Understanding on Co-operation in the Transport Sector which has been in place since 1995," Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony Albanese said.

A four-year extension will be applied to the Australian Government's Indonesia Transport Safety Assistance Package (ITSAP) in order to provide an additional $14.3 million to train transport safety inspectors and accident investigators as well as undertake joint search and rescue exercises.

"My Department will administer the funding in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and Airservices Australia," Albanese added.

In 2007, Australia provided $23.6 million which was focused on the training of over 700 Indonesian government and industry professionals in a range of areas including safety investigation, port control, maritime systems, air navigation, and search and rescue. It also allowed three Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee investigators to complete an ATSB Transport Safety Investigation diploma.

The package further funded three joint Australia-Indonesia civil search and rescue exercises involving AMSA and Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, among other things.

Travel between Australia and Indonesia surpasses 1.3 million passengers per year.

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