Kia Motors lacks Indonesian staff: House member

JAKARTA (JP): South Korea's Kia Motors Corp. came under fire from a House member yesterday for not employing Indonesians at its plant which is making Indonesia's national cars.

Ni Gusti Ayu Eka Sukmadewi of the Indonesian Democratic Party said Kia's executives could not show her any Indonesian workers at its plant when she visited it.

"We learned that there were only three Indonesians at Kia. So, where are the 1,000 Indonesian workers promised to be sent to Kia to produce Indonesian national cars?" Sukmadewi asked a hearing of the House Budgetary Commission which Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo attended.

She said she had cross-checked this with the Indonesian Embassy and discovered that none of the 12,000 Indonesian workers in South Korea worked for Kia.

"They mostly worked as maids or as unskilled laborers in small firms like spoon or drinking glass factories," Sukmadewi said.

Sukmadewi and nine other legislators from the House Budgetary Commission visited South Korea for a week from Aug. 4 last year. They met Kia executives and visited the company's production plants.

Sukmadewi alleged the South Korean company had been dumping defective cars in Indonesia.

The government, through Presidential Decree No. 42/1996 issued June 4, 1996, is letting PT Timor Putra Nasional import 45,000 fully assembled cars from Kia Motors with special tax and tariff privileges for one year.

But the decree states that Indonesian personnel must help make the cars, which must contain the minimum amount of local components stipulated in earlier decrees on the national car.

Minister Tunky said he had received reports that Kia was training 100 Indonesian workers every three months.

Mochamad Ircham, a spokesman for Timor Putra, supported Tunky's statement, asserting that since last March his company had dispatched four groups of 100 Indonesian workers to South Korea.

"So we will send a total of 1,000 to 2,000 people to South Korea to learn how to assemble cars," Ircham said, adding that those sent to Kia had basic automotive skills.

Sukmadewi told reporters after the hearing that the fully assembled Timor cars exported to Indonesia had been withdrawn from the Korean market.

"Reliable sources at the Indonesian Embassy in Seoul and at Kia itself told us that Kia's cars sent to Indonesia were actually rejected cars," Sukmadewi said.

She said the price of these defective cars in South Korea was about four million Korean won (US$4,670) each, while the minimum price here was Rp 35.75 million (US$14,925).

Ircham called Sukmadewi's allegation groundless. He contended that Kia would not risk its international reputation by sending defective cars.

Minister Tunky said he would take note of Sukmadewi's statement and check it with his sources.

Timor Putra, owned by President Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra, is cooperating with Kia to produce the Timor national car. (rid)