I spoke to 3 people today, who said essentially the same thing about their own country's woeful education system; an Antara editor, a taxi driver and middle-ranking Indonesian diplomat. And at no time was the subject of education being discussed. We were talking about the local media, traffic congestion and East Timor, respectively, when each of these folks began bemoaning the state of Indonesian education. So, if everyone knows the problem, why are there no solutions?????

Massive difference is that in France and America they have a thousand other things that attract investors, Indonesia's main attraction is/should be/once was low overhead costs, including labor costs. The Indonesian govt motto: How can we shoot ourselves in the foot today?

Indonesia drops plan to reform labour laws: report Posted: 13 September 2006 JAKARTA : Indonesia has dropped a bid to reform employment laws as a result of opposition from trade unions, a move likely to disappoint foreign investors, a report said Wednesday. Southeast Asia's largest economy has been seeking to improve its lacklustre business climate to attract vital foreign investment.

Business suffer from uncompetitive workforce Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Improving the national education system is the key to making workers more efficient and productive, Indonesia's Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) says. At a human development seminar organized by Kadin on Tuesday, it was revealed that Indonesia's competitiveness in the global market dropped last year from 2004. Citing a 2005 World Economic Forum survey on global competitiveness Kadin deputy chairman Hariyadi B.

RI told to improve legal certainty More work needs to be done to improve the country's investment climate, German finance company DEG director Michael Bornmann says. "If we look at the figures of some economic indicators, we have good projects and good opportunities here," Bornmann said (photo left) with DEG Jakarta office director Wilhelm Icke. The government has been criticized by the private sector for not meeting its deadline to revise the tax, investment and labor laws.