'Higher pay better than donations'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Legislators criticized yesterday a recent pledge
\nby business tycoons to allocate 2 percent of their net profits
\nfor the development of small businesses, saying that the funds
\nwould be better used to pay higher wages to workers.<\/p>\n
\"What is needed for the improvement of small enterprises is
\nnot donations but equal treatment from the government and equal
\nopportunities to do businesses,\" a member of the House
\nRepresentatives' Commission VI, Soenarjo Haddade, said during a
\nhearing with Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo yesterday.<\/p>\n
Almost 100 business tycoons, after participating in a course
\non the state ideology Pancasila in Bali last month, promised in
\nthe \"Bali Declaration\" that they would help narrow the gap
\nbetween large and smaller businesses. Some of them proposed that
\nbig companies allocate 2 percent of their net profits for such a
\npurpose.<\/p>\n
Legislators said yesterday that Indonesian workers need an
\nimprovement in their wages, which are still very low.<\/p>\n
Minimum wages are set at between Rp 2,200 (96.78 U.S. cents)
\nand Rp 4,750 per day, varying between provinces. Many companies
\nfail to pay the minimum to their employees, a practice which
\nsometimes leads to strikes.<\/p>\n
Haddade said he was suspicious that the Bali Declaration might
\nhave been engineered to dampen rumors concerning the widening gap
\nbetween the rich and the poor, between big and small businesses
\nand between developments in the western part and the eastern part
\nof Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Royani Haminullah of the Indonesian Democratic Party's faction
\nin the House told the hearing, presided over by commission
\nchairman Erie Soekardja, that the tycoons who produced the Bali
\nDeclaration should not become a pressure group which can
\ninterfere in government policy-making.<\/p>\n
He said he was concerned about the concentration of
\nbusinesses, from those upstream to the down-stream tributaries of
\ncertain industries, in the hands of a small group of people.<\/p>\n
Iskandar Manji of the ruling Golkar party reminded Tunky
\nabout his own pledge, made after his induction as minister of
\nindustry, that he would provide equal business opportunities to
\nall companies in the country.<\/p>\n
Tunky told the hearing that the intention of the Bali
\nDeclaration was good because it was aimed at helping small
\nbusiness.<\/p>\n
The minister said the concentration of businesses into certain
\ngroups of companies occurred because they wanted to improve
\nefficiency and ensure adequate supplies of materials.<\/p>\n
\"A few efficient companies will be better than a large number
\nof inefficient ones,\" Tunky added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Director General of Light Industries Firdaus Ali,
\nresponding to questions on the current shortage of raw rattan
\nsupplies to the furniture industry, said the supply shortages
\nwere the result of an increase in illegal exports of raw rattan.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that there have been shortages of rattan since
\nSeptember 1994 in Greater Jakarta; Cirebon, West Java; and
\nSurabaya, East Java. (kod)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/higher-pay-better-than-donations-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}