Australia will help increase youth employment in East Timor.

A $24 million four-year program is helping to create short-term employment opportunities and establish vocational education and training benefiting up to 70,000 young people.

I will visit East Timor from 7 to 11 May, 2008. It will be my first visit to East Timor as Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance.

During my visit I will call on President HE Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta and meet with Prime Minister Mr Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao and other Ministers and senior officials in the Government of Timor Leste to discuss the Australian development cooperation program.

I am pleased to announce funding of a new agricultural research project that will help increase wheat and maize production in Afghanistan, as part of Australia’s commitment to rebuilding food security, income generation and rural employment opportunities.

To achieve this, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and AusAID are providing $1.5 million funding over four years in partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the Afghanistan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.

The Rudd Government has taken action to end unacceptable delays experienced by home-owners seeking to access the Federal Government's $1,000 rebate for installing a solar hot water service.

The refurbished Papua New Guinea National Library will be officially opened by Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance today, 30 years after its official opening in 1978.

The Hon Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, will today open Survivors, a photographic exhibition detailing the impact of landmines on survivors in Cambodia.

A range of Australian organisations will open their doors to current and future regional leaders after securing funding under Round 2 of the Australian Leadership Awards -Fellowships program.

Australia will help the Philippines to ensure public schools reach and maintain higher standards of basic education and increase young Filipinos’ access to education.

We will provide a $41 million development assistance grant over four years (2007 –2011) through a World Bank trust fund in support of the Government of the Philippines’ basic education reforms.

The Australian Government will establish stronger alliances with a range of domestic, regional and international partners to improve the quality and effectiveness of health sector development assistance in the Asia-Pacific region.

We will provide up to $24 million over four years to establish Health Knowledge Hubs with the Nossal Institute; the University of New South Wales; the University of Queensland; and the Centre for International Child Health, Menzies School of Health Research and the Burnet Institute.

On the eve of United Nations World Health Day (7 April), the Australian Government has reaffirmed its commitment to improving sanitation services in the Asia-Pacific region.

Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan, said improving access to clean water and sanitation services is crucial to raising the health and living standards of people in the Asia Pacific.

Bob McMullan, Member for Fraser, Annette Ellis, Member for Canberra, and Senator Kate Lundy today invited ACT residents to participate in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) National Grocery Prices Inquiry when it hold hearings in Canberra next week.

The private sector in Cambodia can now bid for Australian Government-funded grants for projects that lift people out of poverty.

The Enterprise Challenge Fund for the Pacific and South East Asia provides grants of up to $1.5 million for developing successful business ideas which improve livelihoods, incomes and access to vital goods and services in Cambodia.

Australia will contribute $570,000 to support voter education and civic participation in the lead up to the Cambodia National Assembly election this year.