Indonesia needs strong industrial workforce, Soeharto says

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia needs a strong and skilled workforce to ensure success in its current industrialization drive, President Soeharto says.

Launching a series of seminars designed to strengthen Indonesia's manpower base, Soeharto said yesterday that both workers and management should strive to build a strong industrial workforce.

"In an industrial society, production requires a highly disciplined workforce that is time efficient, meticulous, diligent, skilled and responsible," he said at the State Palace. "Many of our workers do not yet fulfill these conditions."

"On the other hand, many entrepreneurs and industrialists still view their workers as simply one of the factors of production.

"Such a perception has caused entrepreneurs and industrialists to ignore the inherent characters of workers, such as customs and tradition, religion, feelings and interests," he said.

The Ministry of Manpower yesterday kicked off the first of seven seminars it is planning to hold in the next few weeks for an overview of the problems facing the nation.

The first seminar is about unemployment, a pressing problem for the government with about 29 million people, nearly 30 percent of the total workforce in Indonesia, currently either unemployed or underemployed. On top of this, official statistics suggest that Indonesia needs to create jobs for 12 million new workers in the next five years.

The other seminars will be on industrial relations (May 9-11), wages (May 19-20), labor legislation (May 26-27), industrial training (July 1-2), productivity (July 13-14) and industrial society (July 21-22).

Soeharto urged management and workers to work towards harmonious relations because they need one another.

Acknowledging the need for companies to remain competitive, Soeharto said they should strive to improve remuneration for their workers.

He proposed a wage system that meets people's basic needs and allows them and their families to grow and prosper.

He warned that a wage system must not further expand the social disparity but should be attractive to the business community.

Unemployment

Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief hammered home the unemployment problem facing Indonesia. "The high unemployment level is a major challenge for us. If we fail to handle this problem, it will cause political, economic and social problems," he said.

Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita, who spoke at the first session of the three-day seminar on unemployment, said one way of controlling the size of the workforce is through curtailing population growth.

In the next 25 years, Indonesia should cut its annual population growth from 1.7 percent to 0.9 percent, he said.

The population distribution should be controlled properly, he said, noting that at present 60 percent of Indonesia's 184 million live on Java.

He said development activities outside Java should be stimulated to redress this population imbalance. "Most of the population is on Java because the development is centered here."

Ginandjar said that the education and training system should be improved to train the young entrepreneurs who are expected to create more job opportunities. (rms)