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The LAFIA experience
Steve Vesperman, Deputy Commissioner, Debt, ATO on his study tour to Vanuatu, PNG and the Solomon Islands.

Register by fax:

Simply fax the completed registration form to 02 6202 4775

Dates

Introductory Strategic Dialogue
11 and 12 May 2011

Overseas study tour
5-25 June 2011

Reporting and evaluation session
28 July 2011

Fees and charges

All fees quoted are GST inclusive
Full fee $30,580

The fee includes academic course content, a program of meetings with high level government, business and community leaders, briefings from senior Australian and other diplomats, official receptions and in-country transport.

Travel, accommodation and allowances are additional costs to be met by sponsoring agencies.

Location

Venue details will be provided with your registration confirmation

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Leading Australia's Future in the Asia-Pacific (LAFIA)

In 2011, two LAFIA programs will be conducted by the Australian Public Service Commission in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and The Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University.

Key senior executive government program

Each year senior executives from the Australian and New Zealand public sector take part in LAFIA programs across Asia and the Pacific. More than 295 senior executives have participated in LAFIA, now in its eighteenth year. If you are a member of the APS Senior Executive Band 2, or 3 (or equivalent) the program gives you the context and background for the international dimension of your senior leader responsibilities. Enhance your strategic leadership, build senior executive business and management skills, promote a greater understanding of the region and its significance and establish valuable contacts and networks.

If you are aspiring to elite levels of leadership within the Senior Executive Service you cannot go beyond the unique experiences, challenges and substantial rewards of LAFIA.

LAFIA Asia 2011 (Indonesia and India)

If you are a member of the Commonwealth, State or New Zealand public service senior executive (Band 2 or 3, or equivalent) this program gives you the context and background for the international dimension of your senior leader responsibilities.

Enhance your strategic leadership, build senior executive business and management skills, promote a greater understanding of the region and its significance and establish valuable contacts and networks.

Program background

Join a diverse and high profile group of senior executives as part of LAFIA Asia 2011.

LAFIA Asia 2011 analyses Australia’s contemporary engagement with Asia. You will be encouraged as a senior executive to think about the effects of current developments within the region on Australia, your agency and yourself as a leader in government.

The unique and challenging political, economic, strategic and social issues in the Asia region increasingly influence Australia’s directions and policies. Indonesia and India have become key economic and policy powerhouses of Asia and LAFIA will provide you with a unique opportunity to better understand the intricacies of these two diverse countries.

LAFIA Asia 2011 takes you on a personally structured study tour of these countries.

Continuing Asian economic success and the remarkable recent growth of Indonesia and India make it a compelling time to be part of LAFIA 2011.

LAFIA Asia 2011 allows you to experience contemporary whole of government challenges that face Asia initially through intensive pre-tour diplomatic and academic briefings. Then in Indonesia and India you will meet with senior government, business and community leaders, visit key political, commercial and community locations and enjoy stimulating discussions with influential decision-makers.

Key elements of LAFIA Asia 2011

LAFIA is a distinctive contribution to enhancing your performance and leadership skills as a senior member of the Australian and New Zealand public sectors. Through a structured and tailored program designed to meet your portfolio needs and wider interests you are afforded a unique opportunity to experience first hand the social, economic and political dimensions that charge Asia.

LAFIA Asia 2011 Program features

LAFIA Asia 2011 focuses on Indonesia and India.

Indonesia

Indonesia, a vast archipelago state comprising 238 million people represents one of Australia’s most important and critical bilateral relationships. Indonesia has emerged as a strong contemporary state and post-GFC has been recognised as the third fastest growing economy (~may exceed 6% for 2010) alongside China and India in the G20. The high growth rate has increased inflation which is expected to peak between 4.5 to 5.5% although the rupiah’s 3.6% appreciation against the US dollar in 2010 would help offset some of this. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Central Bank has continued to buck the regional trend towards higher interest rates in the hope that the country’s economic fundamentals would have more time to consolidate and strengthen.

Australia directs the largest portion of development assistance aid to Indonesia, estimated at $458.7 million for 2010-11. Trade and investment links are steadily developing within the Indonesia-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement with two-way trade worth $11.3 billion in 2009. The ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement, completed in February 2009, also guides two-way trade between the nations. People to people links are strong whereby Indonesians in Australian educational institutions deliver close to $500 million annually to the Australian economy and over half a million Australians visited Indonesia in 2009. 

Coincident with democratisation has been Indonesia’s great experiment on decentralisation of government services with the aim of providing more efficient resourcing and funding for the heterogeneous needs of regional communities spread across a vast archipelago. The jury remains out on decentralisation as local jurisdictions have been largely captured by sectional interests, dogged by electoral financing issues, and ill-served by ambiguous definitions of responsibilities and inadequately skilled staff in regional provinces. The situation is further exacerbated by communal tensions and violence among diverse ethnic groups with separatist movements rekindling in Aceh and West Papua, the emergence of active Islamic terror groups and an Indonesian military riven with powerful factions who are known to pursue their own agenda. These challenges are not insurmountable but they combine to test the new democracy’s capacity to sustain a cohesive state and deliver effective governance, security and economic development.

The 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, and the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, served as an impetus for closer, more effective collaboration between Australia and Indonesia on matters of terrorism and transnational crime.  Furthermore, the Lombok Treaty on traditional and non-traditional security challenges is just one example of concerted action in the face of a changing security landscape in Asia. Illegal fishing, people smuggling and trafficking, avian influenza, financial crises, natural disasters, environmental degradation and climate change represent just some matters of cooperative interest between Australia and Indonesia.

India

Decades of insular socialist policies following independence resulted in a poorly performing Indian economy fettered by protectionism, over-regulation, extensive state intervention and corruption.  In the early 1990s, a balance of payments crisis and an IMF bailout led to major economic liberalisation reforms that opened up the Indian economy to global trade and investment and gradually facilitated the transition to a free market economy.

As a consequence, FDI leapfrogged from $0.13Bil to $5.1Bil within barely three years. Services trade especially in IT-related areas grew phenomenally, growing at 7.9% per annum and contributing to 60% of GDP since 2000. In services outsourcing, India ranks only behind the United States. However restrictive labour laws, agricultural subsidies and an overall poor infrastructure remain obstacles to higher growth rates. The economic boom has also been characterised by uneven growth across different states and a widening of the wealth distribution gap between the rich and poor with some 410 million Indians still living below the UN poverty line of US$1.25 per day (PPP). India’s youth population(~41% in 2001 census) is however expected to produce a demographic dividend by providing a constant flow of workers right through to 2050 and with India gradually overtaking China’s economic growth rates over the longer term.

China’s adroit management of bilateral ties with the encircling states of Burma, Pakistan and Sri Lanka has contributed to a growing sense of paranoia in Indian defence circles and India’s military budget has risen commensurately to US$32Bil per annum. India’s foreign relations with its most important neighbours, Pakistan and China, are strained by ongoing territorial disputes and historical animosity. Pakistan and India are both nuclear-armed and have disputed territories in Kashmir with India blaming Pakistan for fuelling militant secessionist Islamic groups in Kashmir. India must also contend with China over the Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh which China claims as its territory. Terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistani Islamic groups have been linked to the bombing of the Indian Parliament in 2001 and the November 2008 Mumbai attacks in which over 160 people were killed. India is also subject to a range of sometimes violent separatist movements by Maoists insurgents in several of its states.

Trading ties remain strong with China being India’s second largest trade partner (US$42Bil) in 2008-09. Although India was Australia’s third largest export market in 2009 with two-way goods and services trade totalling $20.9Bil in 2009, Australia remains only India’s eighth largest trade partner with a decidedly massive surplus in Australia’s favour (US$14.4Bil to July 2010), a surplus that has doubled since 2008.

An FTA Joint Feasibility Report (May 2010) suggested that an Australia-India FTA could result in a net increase in Australia’s GDP by up to US$32Bil over 20 years. Australian refusal to supply uranium to India as a non-NPT signatory is perceived generally negatively in Delhi although the rationale for this is understood. Also, the widespread publicity of random attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2009 appears to have contributed to a notable decline of international student numbers from India.  These adverse events however represent only temporary setbacks to longstanding cultural familiarity and historically strong people to people linkages between Australia and India as fellow Commonwealth states and cricket rivals.

Introductory Strategic Dialogue

The Introductory Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is an intensive two day briefing of Australia’s engagement with Asia designed to prepare you for your study tour.

You will hear a diverse range of views focusing on the cultural, social, economic and political perspectives of Asia including key historical events as well as current and topical issues.

The ISD is conducted by the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Economics and Government.

The key to the success of the ISD is the quality of presentations from high profile professionals with long experience in engagement with the Asia region.

Over the two days you will hear from and interact with:

Discussion topics for LAFIA Asia 2011 ISD include:

Study tour highlights

Reporting and evaluation session

The reporting and evaluation session is the opportunity to reflect and share your experiences and those of SES colleagues about LAFIA Asia 2011.

Specifically the session is an assessment of the personal and professional outcomes of LAFIA Asia 2011 through its stated aims of:

The reporting and evaluation session will be in Canberra on 28 July 2011.

The session will be followed by a celebratory LAFIA  Alumni dinner.

Cancellation

Any cancellations from the program must be advised in writing.  Written cancellations received by 30 April 2011 will be entitled to a full refund.  Cancellations received after this date will incur full charges.  Substitute participants at the appropriate level will be accepted.

Further information

Closing date for application — Friday, 4 March 2011. Complete and return the LAFIA Asia 2011 registration form (PDF / MS Word) by facsimile to: 02 6250 4775.

For further information, please contact Jeanne Sainsbury on (02) 6202 3847 or email jeanne.sainsbury@apsc.gov.au