Govt prepares to open labor market
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.