Expat exodus a blessing for locals: Manpower official

By Ridwan M. Sijabat

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is rapidly losing its status as a promised land for expatriate workers.

They are leaving in droves. In December of last year, the Ministry of Manpower recorded 48,417 expatriates employed in various sectors.

By January, about 17,000 of these were forced to pack their bags and head home because their employers could no longer pay their U.S. dollar-denominated salaries.

An estimated 15,000 others have left this month.

It is a stunning exodus after the past decade of robust economic growth, when foreign workers, drawn by hefty salaries and benefits, had flocked here to take advantage of numerous job opportunities.

Their skills came at a high price -- the nation paid about US$3 billion annually to foreign workers, a senior official at the Ministry of Manpower said.

"But, now, the situation is temporarily over," said labor economist and chief of the ministry's planning and development bureau, Yudo Swasono. "Foreigners must be patient and wait until the economy recovers, in a few years or even a dozen years."

Foreign professionals working in the country were now less than 16,000, based on the ministry's January statistics.

Under a 1995 presidential decree, the chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), industrial zones and the Batam Industrial Development Authority can also issue work permits to foreigners.

The ministry issued more than 15,500 of the work permits for the 48,000 expatriates registered at the end of last year. Of these workers, 102 had doctorates, 116 held postgraduate degrees, more than 9,200 were undergraduate degree holders and the rest had academic or special training diplomas.

Most were employed in plantations, mining, manufacturing, electricity, construction, trade, transportation, finance and services sectors.

More than 5,600 occupied managerial positions, 30,100 were middle-level professionals, almost 11,000 were in supervisory positions and others were employed as operators and technicians.

Yudo said the local business world and labor market were "at a crossroads" following the departure of the expatriates.

"This is a golden opportunity for locals to take over all the jobs left vacant by the expatriates. But we should remember that Indonesia is short of middle and upper-level professionals. It is a serious dilemma."

High demand

The relatively few skilled professionals will be in high demand, he said.

"Companies requiring professionals may have no choice but to hijack local professionals through headhunters. And this will not solve the problem."

Many multinationals were stumped in efforts to find qualified local workers, who would receive lower salaries than expatriates, for top positions, he added.

The government announced recently that the crisis had pushed the number of unemployed to eight million. It has embarked on labor-intensive programs for unskilled workers to ensure security, especially ahead of the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly next month.

Yudo conceded the government was tardy in initiating training programs to prepare locals to take over jobs left vacant by expatriates.

However, it is carrying out training sessions for middle and upper-level local professionals in a Rp 44 billion program.

This is funded by fees paid by companies employing expatriates.

The 1995 presidential decree, which also stipulates work positions open or closed to foreigners, requires employers to pay a monthly fee of $100 for each of their expatriate workers to finance the training program.

"From September 1996 through March of this year, the ministry is implementing a training program for hundreds of local professionals in the mining, tourism and forestry sectors," he said.

In the 1998-1999 fiscal year, the government will allocate Rp 144 billion to provide the program for local workers in diverse sectors, he added.

Yudo said the government should intensify the training program to improve the quality of local human resources before expatriates return in the future.

"We still have time to create professional workers before the economy recovers in the next few years," he said.

It was a prime opportunity not to be missed, he said, because expatriates would flood back into the country once the economy recovered and with the implementation of free trade regulations in the next few years.