Govt has enough money to train workers: Exporters

Govt has enough money to train workers: Exporters

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Labor exporters are urging the government to utilize billions of
dollars collected from labor exports and foreign workers to
finance training and retraining programs that Indonesian workers
need to compete in the global labor market.

The Association of Indonesian Labor Exporters (Himsataki) and
the Association of Indonesian Labor Export Companies (Apjati)
said the government has no reason not to invest in labor training
since it had raised a huge amount of funds from labor exports and
foreign workers.

"The government has a constitutional obligation to carry out a
training program for workers either through schools or training
centers. It has no excuse not to do so since it has collected a
lot of money from workers sent overseas and from expatriates
working in the country," Himsataki chairman Yunus Yamani said.

The government rakes in around US$1.5 billion annually in
foreign exchange from around 2.5 million workers working
overseas. Most of the workers are employed as housemaids with
monthly salaries of US$100 to $250.

It also collects $100 monthly from every expatriate working in
Indonesia.

Yunus was responding to the proposed training and retraining
programs to improve workers' competitiveness in the global labor
market under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the ASEAN
Free Trade Area (AFTA).

The training and retraining programs were proposed since
almost 70 percent of Indonesian workers are either uneducated or
unskilled.

Apjati chairman Husein Alaydrus agreed and suggested that the
House of Representatives and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK)
investigate the funds collected from labor exports and foreign
workers since the government had been not transparent about how
it used the money.

"The government received $20 from every worker sent to Saudi
Arabia in 1980 throughout 2000 and $15 for every worker employed
overseas over the last five years. It also imposes a monthly levy
of expatriates working here," Husein said.

According to Apjati data, Indonesia supplies around 15,000
workers monthly to Saudi Arabia and around 40,000 monthly to
other foreign countries, while the number of expatriates in
Indonesia varies from 13,000 to 35,000 per year.

The Labor Law allows the government to collect levies from
labor exports and foreigners working locally in order to improve
the quality of Indonesian workers.

Reliable sources at the Ministry of Manpower of Transmigration
said all levies collected from workers were treated as nontaxable
government revenue. The labor ministry receives 60 percent of the
money, while the rest goes to the Ministry of Finance.

Separately, labor exporter Saleh Alwaini said the demand for
Indonesian workers in the global market was high, but only for
middle- and highly skilled workers, a market which the country
cannot supply.

"Demand for Indonesian workers in the professional, health,
tourist, transportation, agriculture and financial sectors is
high. The main problem is that Indonesia has a surplus of workers
but most lack the competence required by international
standards," he said.

To fill the high demand, he suggested that the government
start operating training centers and encourage the private sector
to establish more training centers for both workers and job
seekers.

He estimated that Indonesia could double labor exports to five
million, which would earn the country around $10 billion in
annual remittances, if the training and retraining programs
worked optimally.