Gillard outlines Australia's Asian century goals in strategy paper

Under the policies outlined in the government's white paper on "Australia in the Asian century", every Australian child would have the opportunity to study an Asian language by 2025 with all schools engaging with least one counterpart in the region.

The guidelines spell out sweeping economic, educational, business and diplomatic goals for Australia and take advantage of the huge growth in the region's middle class. The paper says every Australian student would have significant exposure to studies of Asia.

Four "priority" Asian languages would be set - Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese - which will be accessible to all students throughout their school years.

The engagement with Asian schools would support the teaching of a priority Asian language and leverage the National Broadband Network.

According to Australia's prime minister, Julia Gillard the 312-page paper brought together existing policy directions and added to them.

The ambitious initiatives, however, are not accompanied by any announcement of increased money for their funding.