The 70-minute show featurs vibrant and colourful performances boasting Indonesia’s cultural and religious diversity. (Photo: VNA) Jarkata (VNA) - Three Vietnamese were among 72 young people from 40 countries that performed in thecultural show “Indonesia Channel 2019” in Bangyuwangi city, Indonesia, on August 13.
They wereawardees of the Indonesian Arts and Culture Scholarship (IACS) programme who performed to show off their artistic skills they had learned throughout thethree-month course.
The 70-minuteshow featured vibrant and colourful performances boasting Indonesia’s culturaland religious diversity.
Addressing theevent, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said arts and culture canconnect all people regardless of religion, ethnicity, gender, age or politicalbackground. Since it was launched, the IACS initiative has served as a bridgeof friendship and peace, she added.
The IACS willcontinue to create “Friends of Indonesia”, promote Indonesia among theinternational community and encourage young people to play a role in developinga global peaceful and diversity loving society, Marsudi told the Vietnam NewsAgency.
According tothe minister, the awardeeswere sent to study at arts centres in six cities, Yogyakarta, Bali, Makassar, Padang, Kutai Kartanegara and Banyuwangi duringthe course. They exploredlocal cultures, the Indonesianlanguage and took part inlocal cultural festivals.
The IACS is an annual scholarship programme run by the Indonesian Ministry of ForeignAffairs. It has been conducted since 2003 and was initially offered to membercountries of the South West Pacific Dialogue (SwPD), namely Australia, NewZealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Timor-Leste and the host Indonesia.
Because of the success the programme has expanded to include member countriesof ASEAN, ASEAN 3, Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), as well as other countries fromregions across the world.
It aims to introduce Indonesian arts and culture to the world's youths byproviding learning facilities for practices such as choreography, gamelan (traditionalinstruments), batik, painting, museums, nature tourism, traditional food, andmore.
To date, the scholarships have been awarded to 920 young people from 77 countries.–VNA
VNA
