Expat exodus a blessing for locals: Manpower official

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.