Labor retraining a must: Official

Labor retraining a must: Official

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia is in need of competence-based training and retraining
programs to improve competitiveness of its labor in the global
market, government officials and businesspeople say.

Director general for research, development and information at
the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Harry Heriawan Saleh
said on Tuesday a national program to train and retrain workers
was necessary since the majority of the country's workforce was
both uneducated and unskilled.

"(Unskilled) workers in inefficient firms have to improve
their competence in the face of competition with expatriates
(soon) to enter domestic labor market. Those seeking employment
overseas need to meet international standards, otherwise they
will lose to competitors from the Philippines, Vietnam, India and
Bangladesh," Harry said.

The education ministry needed to review the national
curriculum and link schools with labor markets to produce
graduates whose diplomas were internationally certified, he said.

The free trade in services under the ASEAN Free Trade
Agreement (AFTA) is scheduled to be implemented in the region
next year.

Indonesia will then be required to open its labor market in
seven sectors after a World Trade Organization ministerial
meeting scheduled for December in Hong Kong. The sectors are
professional occupations, mining, maritime, education,
construction, finance and health.

Separately, labor exporters blamed the government's failure to
prioritize human resource development for the country's
unreadiness for the freer trade in labor.

Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Labor Exporters
(Apjati) Husein Alaydrus and Saleh Alwaini, president of PT Inti
Binawan, said business community in the country was surprised by
the government's ignorance of the country's low economic
competitiveness in the global market.

"The government apparently does not care about the low quality
of the country's human resources. Indonesia is a home to not only
inefficient companies but also to unskilled and low-skilled
workers," Husein said.

He said to survive the global labor market, the government had
no choice but to make a huge investment in labor training
programs that so far had been entrusted to the private sector.

"A revolutionary change in the education and training sectors
must be initiated. The newly established National Agency for the
Certification of Professions has to begin operating and a
national labor bourse must be set up to provide a database on
workers' competence and to supply labor required at home and
overseas," he said.

Husein and Saleh criticized Manpower and Transmigration
Minister Fahmi Idris for doing nothing after nine months in
office, with freed up labor markets just around the corner.

"Even worse, the issue of illegal immigrants in Malaysia has
not been handled properly, the labor exports to Saudi Arabia
remain suspended and the labor supply to Taiwan is still in
trouble," Saleh said.

The pair urged the government to begin lobbying countries
where Indonesia had the potential to export labor to develop
mutual agreements that recognized domestic workers' competence.