Labor fund 'unlikely to curb jobless rate'

JAKARTA (JP): A senior manpower official has conceded that Rp 1 trillion (US$66.6 million) earmarked for labor-intensive projects will likely make little headway in stemming the alarming rise in unemployment nationwide.

"We must acknowledge that the project is designed not to solve, but to help solve, unemployment," Director General for Labor Placement Din Syamsuddin said at a media conference here yesterday.

He also admitted that the program could only absorb 565,000 of the 15.4 million unemployed.

But he maintained that the projects would continue.

Din, in his capacity as control team leader of the project, said the ministry had designed two schemes, one for unskilled workers and another for skilled ones, in 18 provinces for the next eight months.

He said the government had provided almost Rp 400 billion to finance the unskilled-unemployed scheme and almost Rp 600 billion for the skilled-unemployed scheme.

"Unskilled workers will be employed in building renovation, road and irrigation projects while skilled ones will be employed in agribusiness, village cooperatives and home industries with an expectation that they will become young entrepreneurs."

Participants would be paid in accordance with the regional minimum monthly salary, he added.

Din pledged to closely watch the project to ensure no malfeasance occurred and that the fund was optimally utilized.

"The project is aimed at those who are hungry, for the jobless people, laid-off and fired workers, and it must reach the target."

He called on public figures, religious leaders and the press to play a role in helping supervise the project.

"Government officers or NGOs (non-governmental organizations) suspected of embezzling the project funds will be taken to court," he warned. (rms)