Ministry of Finance sends scholars to study IT in India
On the 5th of April, the Minister of Finance chaired the send-off ceremony of 13 Timorese students to Bangalore, India, who will take an undergraduate program in the area of Information Technology (IT). The scholarship grant is funded under the Planning and Financial Management Capacity Building Program (PFMCBP) a multi-year, multi-donor funded program implemented by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and supervised by the World Bank. The scholarship is expected to result in the strengthening of the IT technical support in the public financial management function of the MoF when the scholars finish their studies and return to Timor-Leste.
This is the third batch of MoF scholars sent to study overseas. The first, 21 Timorese scholars went to Adelaide, Australia in April 2010 to study Business Accounting and Economics – two of which were post-graduates and the rest were undergraduate students. The secondgroup of 10 students went to Jakarta, Indonesia in September 2010 to study Statistics.
The 13 IT scholars underwent a competitive and transparent selection process conducted by the Directorate General for Corporate Services (DGCS) of the MoF as early as August 2010. Seventy four applicants took written tests in Mathematics and English on August 23, 2010from which the 10 scholars were selected for Jakarta, and the 13 others were awarded the IT scholarship to India. The students are expected to finalize their studies within 3 years. After finishing their studies, the scholars are duty bound to return and render service to the MoF for a period of 7 years.
India is recognized as one of the world’s best producer of IT practitioners.
