Corporations in dire need of professionals
Corporations in dire need of professionals
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's largest companies are in such dire need of managers and other professionals that they often just take them from other corporations, an executive said.
Chief Executive of the Bakrie Group Tanri Abeng said after meeting with President Soeharto yesterday that the increasing need for professionals is due to rapid corporate growth.
"Our problem is too many opportunities," said Tanri, who accompanied the group's chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, at the meeting with the President.
"To manage the opportunities, conglomerate owners often take a short cut by importing professionals or hijacking them from other companies," Tanri said.
Tanri said that Aburizal, on his way back from a recent business tour to Uzbekistan, brought with him business contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
"As an entrepreneur, he has an instinct, He grabs those opportunities first and puts possible managerial problems second," Tanri said.
"So you see, the demand for managers is growing very rapidly, while the supply from the domestic market is very low," he continued.
Such short-cut practices have made local professionals more expensive to hire.
In the region, top Indonesian managers rank third after those from Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of their hiring rates, Tanri said.
"Based on purchasing power parity, for the level of general managers Indonesians are the most expensive," Tanri said, adding that their rates often reach US$30,000 a month.
He said the managers from India, the Philippines and Pakistan earn about one-third less than Indonesian managers.
Tanri, himself one of the most expensive managers in the country, noted that the high hiring rate for local professionals is counter-productive for the country's economy and has resulted in the hiring of foreign professionals, especially from India and the Philippines.
"President Soeharto also has observed this trend. And the facts show that there are many expatriate professionals, especially in large companies," Tanri said.
Permits
According to the Ministry of Manpower, the government issued 57,159 official work permits to foreigners last year, representing a 38 percent increase over the previous year's total of 41,422.
Permits issued to Koreans totaled 11,668, or 20.4 percent of the 1995 figure and double the 1994 total of 5,539 permits for Koreans. The second biggest contingent of workers here is Japanese, with 9,442, followed by 5,694 Taiwanese, 4,121 Indians, 3,537 Americans and 3,049 Australians.
Based on tax returns, each of the 13,624 expatriate managers receives an average salary of $6,250 a month; 11,874 professionals are paid $5,000 per month; 8,254 supervisors get a monthly salary of $2,150 and 23,407 have a monthly salary of $1,600.
Their total monthly wage bill comes to $199,717,300, or an annual sum of nearly $2.4 billion.
To become less dependent on expatriate managers and other professionals, Aburizal said his group will establish a management development program for Indonesia's junior as well as senior managers and other professionals.
He explained that he would cooperate with other conglomerate owners as well as local and foreign universities to develop the program. (rid)