More expat workers to flood RI job market
More expat workers to flood RI job market
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian professionals and policy makers,
beware! As a result of the rapid globalization process and trade
liberalization measures, more and more expatriates will be coming
to Indonesia's shores to work, according to a leading
demographer.
Apart from the possibility of depriving Indonesians of jobs,
the influx of foreigners will have major social consequences,
most notably cultural clashes, Aris Ananta of the School of
Economics at the University of Indonesia said yesterday.
"Indonesia should be mentally prepared to accept the presence
of more foreign professionals in their midst, and for the
cultural values they are bringing with," Aris said yesterday
while briefing reporters about an upcoming seminar on the impact
of globalization on the manpower sector in Indonesia.
The seminar, planned for next Tuesday, is being organized by
the Demography Institute of the University of Indonesia, of which
Aris is a deputy chairman. Speakers at the one-day forum will
include prominent economists and labor experts, such as Mari
Pangestu, Yudo Swasono and Soehadi Mangkusuwondo.
Indonesia, by signing the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade, must now dismantle many of the restrictions it currently
imposes on the employment of foreigners.
In the health sector, for example, the government is currently
reviewing its policy of restricting foreign physicians. About the
only valid recourse open to the government in limiting the influx
of expatriates is to insist that they be able to speak the
Indonesian language.
Aris said that even though most expatriates would be filling
positions for which no qualified Indonesians could be found,
their presence would still slow down the training and development
of Indonesia's human resources.
Unless a transfer of technology was assured, he warned, the
inflow of expatriates could further widen the disparity which
exists between Indonesian and foreign workers.
He added, however, that Indonesia needed the presence of
professional expatriates because the bulk of the Indonesian
work force was unskilled and had attained only a low educational
level.
Most multinational companies and even some local companies had
been forced to hire expatriate managers because of the shortage
of qualified Indonesian workers, he said.
Aris, who was inaugurated as a professor at the university
last month, said that, given the current manpower situation,
Indonesia would continue to supply workers to do menial jobs in
neighboring countries.
Aris predicted that unemployment in Indonesia, currently
officially estimated to be three percent of the work force, would
increase to five percent by 2005 and to eight percent by 2020.
(rms)