Local workers can compete abroad: Kosgoro

Local workers can compete abroad: Kosgoro

JAKARTA (JP): Kosgoro, an influential cooperative affiliated to the ruling Golkar party, says Indonesian workers have the skills to fight for employment abroad.

Setya Novanto, who heads Kosgoro's business division, said he believes Indonesian workers can match foreign competitors in terms of quality.

"The top priority should go to provision of vocational skills to our workers needed by importing countries," he said. "We can no longer afford to send cheap, unskilled labor because some countries can now offer even cheaper workers."

President Soeharto said on Tuesday that Indonesia should be encouraged to export skilled workers to phase out the sending of untrained laborers abroad, in order to boost Indonesia's image as a free country.

Setya said vacancies for skilled workers are still wide open in both "traditional markets" like Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Middle East and in new ones, such as Europe, the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Africa.

The government has projected that an estimated 2.5 million people will be working overseas in the year 2000, contributing about US$12.5 billion in foreign exchange a year.

Currently, about 800,000 Indonesians, mostly unskilled, work legally overseas, notably in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Those working illegally are believed to number several hundred thousand. (imn)