Labor retraining a must: Official<\/p>\n
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia is in need of competence-based training and retraining
\nprograms to improve competitiveness of its labor in the global
\nmarket, government officials and businesspeople say.<\/p>\n
Director general for research, development and information at
\nthe Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Harry Heriawan Saleh
\nsaid on Tuesday a national program to train and retrain workers
\nwas necessary since the majority of the country's workforce was
\nboth uneducated and unskilled.<\/p>\n
"(Unskilled) workers in inefficient firms have to improve
\ntheir competence in the face of competition with expatriates
\n(soon) to enter domestic labor market. Those seeking employment
\noverseas need to meet international standards, otherwise they
\nwill lose to competitors from the Philippines, Vietnam, India and
\nBangladesh," Harry said.<\/p>\n
The education ministry needed to review the national
\ncurriculum and link schools with labor markets to produce
\ngraduates whose diplomas were internationally certified, he said.<\/p>\n
The free trade in services under the ASEAN Free Trade
\nAgreement (AFTA) is scheduled to be implemented in the region
\nnext year.<\/p>\n
Indonesia will then be required to open its labor market in
\nseven sectors after a World Trade Organization ministerial
\nmeeting scheduled for December in Hong Kong. The sectors are
\nprofessional occupations, mining, maritime, education,
\nconstruction, finance and health.<\/p>\n
Separately, labor exporters blamed the government's failure to
\nprioritize human resource development for the country's
\nunreadiness for the freer trade in labor.<\/p>\n
Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Labor Exporters
\n(Apjati) Husein Alaydrus and Saleh Alwaini, president of PT Inti
\nBinawan, said business community in the country was surprised by
\nthe government's ignorance of the country's low economic
\ncompetitiveness in the global market.<\/p>\n
"The government apparently does not care about the low quality
\nof the country's human resources. Indonesia is a home to not only
\ninefficient companies but also to unskilled and low-skilled
\nworkers," Husein said.<\/p>\n
He said to survive the global labor market, the government had
\nno choice but to make a huge investment in labor training
\nprograms that so far had been entrusted to the private sector.<\/p>\n
"A revolutionary change in the education and training sectors
\nmust be initiated. The newly established National Agency for the
\nCertification of Professions has to begin operating and a
\nnational labor bourse must be set up to provide a database on
\nworkers' competence and to supply labor required at home and
\noverseas," he said.<\/p>\n
Husein and Saleh criticized Manpower and Transmigration
\nMinister Fahmi Idris for doing nothing after nine months in
\noffice, with freed up labor markets just around the corner.<\/p>\n
"Even worse, the issue of illegal immigrants in Malaysia has
\nnot been handled properly, the labor exports to Saudi Arabia
\nremain suspended and the labor supply to Taiwan is still in
\ntrouble," Saleh said.<\/p>\n
The pair urged the government to begin lobbying countries
\nwhere Indonesia had the potential to export labor to develop
\nmutual agreements that recognized domestic workers' competence.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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