HYDERABAD, Jan 26: The ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia in Pakistan, Mr Anwar Santoso, has said that various opportunities for higher education exist for Indonesian students in Pakistani universities, especially the Sindh University.

He was delivering a lecture on ‘Indonesia-Pakistan relations’ during a visit to the Sindh University on Wednesday.

He said the university was like a second home to him.

The Area Study Centre for Far East and South East Asia of the University of Sindh had invited the ambassador.

He was accompanied by other Indonesian diplomats -– Hikmat Moeljawan, Mr Yayun and Henny Muliyani.

Mr Santoso said that for Indonesian students, Pakistan was a good place to pursue their studies.

He said there were around 100 Indonesian students studying in Pakistani universities.

He stressed the need for active cooperation between the two countries for enhancement of business relations.

Mr Santoso said Pakistan must take part in international manufacturers’ exhibitions.

Tracing the history of brotherly relations between the two Muslim countries, he said that they were bound together by religion and had always opposed colonialism.

Mr Santoso said the two countries were founders of the Afro-Asian Conference which helped in independence of colonized countries.

He recalled that Pakistan had supported Indonesia in its struggle against the Dutch rule in 1947, while Indonesia had supported Pakistan during the war of 1965.

He said that Indonesia and Pakistan were two largest Muslim countries in the world and members of the OIC.

He said that their strong relations of the past would help in promoting cooperation in political, economic, military, social and culture sectors.

The ambassador said the two governments had so far signed 35 documents in various fields and the last one was the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Partnership (FACEP) which was signed on November 24, 2005.

He said that they had signed the MoU to combat terrorism and establishment of working groups.

Mr Santoso said that Indonesian heads of state had visited Pakistan 12 times while their Pakistani counterparts visited Indonesia seven times.

He said there was a need to improve economic cooperation as it was limited and Pakistan had only 0.58 per cent share in total Indonesian exports and 0.15 per cent share in total Indonesian imports.

The ambassador said interaction between the business communities was still low and trade between them was not encouraging.