The Study Australia Education Roadshow was hosted today at the Lae International Hotel.
The morning session involved interested students and their parents who checked out the opportunities on offer by eight participating institutions such as the Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and the Australian Agribusiness Institute.
Australian Trade and Investment Commission representative, Patrick Ani, said this is the first leg of the roadshow while the second one will take place in Port Moresby on Thursday at the Hilton Hotel.
“The Study Australia Education Roadshow is basically an event that takes place annually,” he stated. “We bring up Australian universities and promote Australian education in PNG, specifically tertiary education.”
Ani said the roadshow has been occurring in PNG for over 25 years. It slowed down following COVID-19, and has started picking up again.
Overall, the event has been hosted in Port Moresby, Lae, Kokopo, Mt Hagen and Enga.
One of the Australian institutes that had its setup today was the Australian Agribusiness Institute, the trading name of Leaders Institute Pty Ltd.
“We represent Leaders Institute in Brisbane and Sydney,” said Sir Dr Bernard Malik, who is the director industry engagement.
“Leaders Institute specialises in agribusiness and agriculture courses. We are here with the AusTrade-led delegation of the universities from Australia.
“We came here last night. We are here today and tomorrow we go back to Port Moresby and we’ll be there for two days.
“Leaders Institute became number one in regard to student experience and education. We offer bachelor of agribusiness and the requirement for that is senior secondary.
“We also offer masters of agricultural information management; one of the top niche courses in Australia.
“We also offer MBA agribusiness and both the courses, no one else offers. Only Leaders Institute, trading as Australian Agribusiness Institute.
“The beauty is, currently, PNG is wholly dependent on mining. Mining is for non-renewable resources. The only way you can have a thriving economy – a decade from now – is to (do) agriculture.
“PNG is a resource-rich country, and agribusiness is the way to go for PNG. The next decades are going to be agribusiness decades.
“We are very happy to be part of the vision of this government. Your Prime Minister, James Marape, has established three agriculture ministers. It is the only country that has a vision with regard to agribusiness, knowing fully well what the future holds.”