~For Advertorial --- PT Inco: Sunday, Sept. 4, 2008
~For Advertorial --- PT Inco: Sunday, Sept. 4, 2008
Suggested titles:
PT Inco adheres to CSR principles to benefit locals
PT Inco empowers locals through community development programs
Communities living near natural resource-based companies,
including mining firms, have high expectation of being able to
work at the company to improve their standard of living.
Most companies, however, set high standard recruitment
requirement to ensure that they have a good and sound performance
amidst the increasingly competitive industrial era.
Consequently, many local job seekers fail to work and remain
unemployed due to their lack of skills, competency and knowledge.
Publicly listed PT International Nickel Indonesia (Inco), a
leading producer of nickel in matte that operates in Sorowako,
South Sulawesi, is fully aware that many young people living near
its operation site are not ready to work. Therefore, in
cooperation with the Regional Government of East Luwu initiates
an industrial training program (PPI) for local community as part
of its long-term commitment to empower locals through education
and human resources development programs.
The PPI is aimed at preparing locals, in particular working-
age people, to be well-prepared workforce with technical skills
and personalities that meet the industrial standard.
At least 140 senior high school graduates from Nuha, Towuti
and Malili and other sub-districts close to Sorowako take part in
the program. The two-year-long program commenced in October, 2004
does not only provide trainings and tutorial on basic technical
and technical knowledge such as safety, first aids, mining and
process plant overview from experienced instructors, but also on
mentality and attitude aspects.
Participants graduated from the program are expected to have
high level of technical skills and also mentality readiness to
face industrial worlds they will enter. Thus, with the improved
quality and skills, the graduates will have a wider opportunity
to get a job.
The PPI represents one of the many community development (CD)
programs run by PT Inco to coincide with the company's corporate
social responsibility (CSR) principles. The principles require
the company to take part in improving the welfare of locals and
protecting environment to ensure the sustainability of its
operation.
PT Inco, which started operation over 37 years ago, has
designed and implemented numerous CD programs. In earlier years
of operation, the company's CD program focused on providing funds
for the construction of infrastructure, such as roads, an airport
and seaport and water and sewage treatment facilities.
However, when the infrastructure and public facilities are in
place, PT Inco began to focus its CD programs on education and
human-resource development given the importance of skilled
residents for the long-term goal of the company. The programs
include the provision of scholarships and research funds for
students of Hasanuddin University, Makassar under the Cooperative
Education Program (Coop). The program commenced in 1999 allows
students to conduct researches on the mining industry, providing
an opportunity for them to gain experience and knowledge about
mining industry.
The people empowerment program has benefited locals,
especially young people, as more locals are employed at PT Inco.
Dozens of unskilled young people have now turned into employees
with high skill, competency and high sense of discipline that
meet international mining standard requirements. To date, as many
as 3,400 people work at PT Inco, of which about 75 percent are
residents living near its operation site.
As most of the residents living near Inco's operation sites
are farmers, Inco's people empowerment program also focuses on
developing local farmers' skill by providing trainings on how to
boost crop production. In addition to trainings, PT Inco also
gives agricultural equipments, such as hand-tractors, fertilizer,
and superior seedlings.
Apart from education-related programs, PT Inco has also
conducted health programs in a sustainable manner as the welfare
also means living healthily. The health programs emphasize the
accessibility of locals to quality health because many natives
living near the operation site cannot afford medical costs.
To help natives have an access to quality health, PT inco
provides free medical examinations and treatment to all natives
of Sorowako with financial constraint. Others receive discounts
of 23 to 75 percent on health care costs.
Under health programs, PT Inco, in cooperation with the health
agency of the regional government of East Luwu, has also built a
"Puskesmas Plus" (an extended community health center) in
Sorowako and in the District of Towuti. The "plus" point of these
community health centers lies in their extra facilities such as
treatment rooms, emergency units, laboratories, drugstores, and
the periodic visits of specialists like internists, dentists and
pediatricians.
PT Inco also sees conserving local culture and tradition as a
significant aspect because the company highly respects the
existing culture and pluralism although it has no direct
relationship with business operation. Through culture-related CD
programs, the company ensures that its operation does not pose
damage to the existing culture and tradition.
PT Inco, for instance, has provided funds for the conservation
of the Pasitabe culture. The company is also in support of local
art and cultural activities, such as the Padungku celebration or
the harvest festival, bamboo music and publishing local
folklores.
While efforts to reduce the social impact of the company and
to empower locals continue, PT Inco is also committed to
protecting the environment to ensure that the natural resource
can also be enjoyed by the future generation.
Although its contract of work (CoW) will run through 2025, PT
Inco has started with its ex-mining land reclamation projects to
ensure that land rehabilitation programs run successfully when
the company stops operation.
Starting 2003, PT Inco reclaims the impacted land when the
company undertakes a mining activity. The moves have been taken
following the company's years of researches on land
rehabilitation.
Besides, PT Inco also conducts re-greening and original tree-
replanting projects on reclaimed land whose structure has been
returned to its original one to enhance the quality of land. The
projects have been conducted in cooperation with Universitas
Hasanuddin, Makassar and Zbioteknologi Laboratory of the Bogor's
Institute of Technology. At least 200 hectares of impacted land
has been revegetated through the rehabilitated programs.
PT Inco was CoW from the government in 1968 for 30 years and
extended from 1996 to 2025. The CoW covers over 218,000 hectares
of land in South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and Southeast
Sulawesi.
Slowly but surely, many locals living near PT Inco's operation
sites have changed their mental attitudes toward job
opportunities thanks to the company's long-term education and
people empowerment programs. More locals are aware that having
more job opportunities and being self-reliant are better rather
than relying on PT Inco in regard to job opportunity.
Thus, with CSR principles materialized in CD programs, PT Inco
has proved that its business operation does not only benefit
shareholders and the government but also locals.