Lack of professionals worries businessmen

JAKARTA (JP): Several businessmen expressed their concern here yesterday over the shortage of Indonesian professional staff.

They said that many companies preferred to employ expatriates, or hijack ready-trained professionals from other firms.

"Common complaints among the local and foreign businessmen here are on the shortage of skilled workers, claiming that not many of our graduates are broad-minded and self-reliant," said Tjan Soen Eng, a director of PT Dharmala Intiutama. He was one of the panelists speaking at a discussion on job opportunities for economics graduates in the government's second 25-year development program, which began on April 1, 1994.

"As training fresh graduates is very costly, many companies consider it cheaper to employ expatriates than local graduates," he said at the discussion, which was organized by the faculty of economics of the Catholic Atma Jaya University.

Many foreign and local companies employ professionals from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, India, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Data from the ministry of manpower shows that there were 57,000 foreign workers in Indonesia by the end of last year. Employing them costs Indonesia US$2.4 billion a year. Whereas, the 290,000 Indonesians working overseas remitted only $600 million.

According to Tjan, who graduated from Atma Jaya's faculty of economics, the shortage had prompted many firms to hijack skilled workers.

"This particularly happens in the capital market. Many of the hijacked professionals are overpaid as a result," he said.

Another panelist at the meeting, Stefanus H. Karnadi, who is a director of PT Swadharma Indotama Finance, observed that a lack of analytical ability is "generally the weakness of our graduates".

"It seems to me that they only learn to memorize. They are behind in logical and analytical ability," he said, adding that apprenticeships with companies should be increased as a way of tackling the shortage of business professionals.

He said that the apprenticeship system was a good way to prepare university graduates entering the labor market, which will become increasingly competitive when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area starts in 2003.

Then Ngim Fu, the managing director of PT Hardaya Aneka Shoes Industry; Henry C. Suryanaga, the president of PT Asuransi Sinar Mas; and Dr Harjanto Djunaidi, a financial and accounting consultant, also addressed the discussion. (13)