Govt prepares to open labor market
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is lobbying foreign countries and making the necessary preparations ahead of the liberalization of regional labor markets.
The chief of the Center for Research, Development Studies and Information at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, Harry Heriawan Saleh, said the government was putting in place the necessary infrastructure and attending international conferences as part of efforts to protect the interests of the country when labor markets are opened up.
"Indonesia is committed to providing job opportunities for foreign workers only in the professional, energy, maritime, education, construction, finance and health sectors," he told The Jakarta Post here on Wednesday.
The local labor market will be opened to foreign workers amid the global economic liberalization drive, starting with the implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) next year and a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement in 2008.
Concerns over the impact of liberalization on local workers resurfaced in the middle of this month when the government announced plans to require foreigners who want to work in the country to pass a Bahasa Indonesia test.
This plan, which could become effective next year, is seen as part of efforts to reduce the flow of foreign workers and protect the jobs of Indonesians.
Heriawan said the government's initial proposal to limit the liberalization drive to seven sectors would be discussed at a WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December next year. If endorsed, it would become a permanent government policy.
The government will also conduct an "economic net test", or labor market test, to measure the effect of the presence of foreign workers on the seven sectors.
"If the presence of expatriates in a certain sector affects the domestic labor market, we will tighten formal requirements for expatriate recruitment. This is acceptable and valid because it is not classified as a trade barrier," Heriawan said.
He said the government was studying the possibility of opening more sectors to foreign workers, but had to be careful because this step could create chaos in the domestic labor market.
The government has also lodged a request to 16 foreign countries and regional groupings to open their professional, education, health, tourism and maritime sectors to Indonesian workers.
"We proposed the five sectors because they are our strength," Heriawan said.
The 16 are Hong Kong, Taiwan, Qatar, China, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Papua New Guinea, European Union, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canada.
Harry, also a permanent member of the Indonesian delegation to AFTA and APEC meetings, said Indonesia was intensifying its lobbying of member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to sign mutual recognition agreements, especially in the engineering, accounting, architecture, surveying, legal services, urban planning and landscaping sectors.
"Indonesia has also signed bilateral agreements with Japan, Taiwan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Jordan and Korea on the employment of Indonesian workers in the informal sector," he added.
The government recently established the National Agency for the Certification of Professionals to coordinate with professional associations to prepare a list of sectors that can be opened to competition from foreign workers.
Meanwhile, A. Widjaya from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences expressed concern that Indonesian workers would lose out in the competition with foreign workers in many sectors because the government was moving too slowly to boost the capacity of local workers.
He said the government was slow to prepare for the liberalization of the labor market because it was focused on reviving the economy following the 1997 regional economic crisis.
"The strong labor movement and the low quality of human resources have also contributed to the country's lack of (economic) competitiveness," he added.