Freeport Indonesia: Committed to the people of Irian Jaya

Freeport Indonesia: Committed to the people of Irian Jaya

So many questions are asked of PT Freeport Indonesia concerning its social commitments toward the indigenous tribes of Irian Jaya. Mining companies, of course, have great impact on the local people in the areas where they operate. Both positive and negative. But what can most definitely been in these areas is positive development of the local communities when a mining company starts operations.

Such is it with PT Freeport Indonesia, which came to Irian Jaya in 1972, when the local population numbered only in the thousands. At that time, the programs carried out by the company for the local community were simple and limited. Houses for local leaders and community infrastructure were built and free medical care was provided for the community.

Since then, Freeport has fully supported community development in tandem with the company's progress. This is because of its commitment to building and maintaining a positive relationship with the indigenous people living in the area where it operates.

Commitment

Part of the company commitment is to provide opportunities for social and economic development of the local people, including special efforts to train and hire people indigenous to each area operations.

Another part is to learn more about the local people, their history and their changing circumstances in order to achieve a greater understanding necessary for building a constructive relationship.

Freeport was ever expanding when a "revolution" came with the discovery of the world-class Grasberg deposit in 1988. And the years of rapid operational expansion that followed, both the need for local communities and PT Freeport Indonesia efforts to respond to them with an array of social and economic programs spiraled in complexity.

PT Freeport Indonesia's resident workforce expanded particularly during construction and its attraction as a source of economic opportunity increased, drawing thousands of migrants from other indigenous Irian Jaya tribes over the mountains and into the area of PT Freeport Indonesia's operations.

The company made a commitment to set aside 1 percent of its annual gross revenue for a period of 10 years, beginning in 1996, as a fund for community development in Lembaga Pengembangan Masyarakat Irian Jaya (LPM-Irja), an independent organization.

This 1 percent is being used for education and training, health services, economic development, developing public facilities and housing, and empowerment of the local community institution.

The LPM-Irja Board comprises leaders from the Amungme and Kamoro communities (two tribes located around the Freeport compound), local church leaders, local government leaders and a Freeport representative.

Local languages

Before this organization was development, PT Freeport formed relations with anthropologists and demographers from the Australian National University and Cendrawasih University in Jayapura to prepare baseline studies documenting the history and contemporary social, economic and cultural situation of the Amungme and Kamoro people. This has resulted in improvements in communications and understanding between PT Freeport and the local people.

PT Freeport has also funded research by Cendrawasih University on Amungme and Kamoro traditional law as well as a Kamoro language program, which has produced the first Kamoro conversation book, similar to work done previously on the Amungme language.

PT Freeport also realized that in an area that has so many people living in traditional settings, education was also very important to guaranteeing their livelihoods in the future. This was a point of concern for the company because it needed to hire so many well-educated people for the company, especially Irianese.

With a new contract drawn up in 1991, Freeport now pays even more taxes and dividends in the country. In its activities since 1991, it provides many important contributions for the community, including making available scholarships to the tribes near its operations. The company said this is a reinvestment in Indonesia.

Local employees

For the new century, PT Freeport is pleased to double the local employee volume until 2001, and will double it again in 2006 as the company is running a vocational training center and other educational programs. The number of Irianese now employed by PT Freeport is 2,100 or almost 25 percent of all PT Freeport employees.

Projects handled by PT Freeport in 1997 included helping to build a school and dormitory and also give education material to schools located in the highlands and lowlands. PT Freeport is committed to carrying out these ambitious programs because, it says, it all comes down to helping and working with the community to develop the province.

The company with logistics for teachers and material for school renovations. The Waa Tsinga and Aroanop elementary school was built by Freeport and then given to the local government.

It built a dormitory in Tembagapura and Kwamki Lama for the high school. The Timika Basic Training program is for training people who are looking for a job. These people include the seven tribes in the Freeport area; the Amongme, Kamoro, Dani, Damal, Nduga, Ekari and Moni.

Training

The company also sponsored training for small businesses through the Business Training Program in Kwamki Lama, Timika and Kuala Kencana.

There are many, many programs, including agricultural training at the Center for People's Development, Support on Skilled Training Program in Jayapura, working with Cendrawasih University on the transfer of technology and women's education in Tembagapura.

PT Freeport hopes the employees from the local communities will increase, and that the local employees can be encouraged to strive to increase their knowledge so that their opportunities within the company can be increased.

The company also encourage private businesses to do the same. The local people spend their whole life here. Most of them will settle down and raise a family here. Their children also have the opportunity to work at Freeport or some other major private business located here.

Before Freeport came, education had very little meaning here. They might have felt that there was no point even if you had an education because there was no company to hire you.