Pact on worker training

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Public Works Radinal Mochtar and Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief signed a five-year cooperation agreement here yesterday to improve the quality of workers in the construction industry.

"We have to train our workers, both in technical skills and in management, in order to compete with workers from other countries," Latief said after signing the agreement.

He said that without improving training activities, Indonesia might experience a shortage of construction workers in the coming years due to increasing demand both domestically and from other countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.

Radinal said that the growth of demand for workers in the country alone will be in line with the 14 percent annual growth rate of the Indonesian construction industry.

According to Radinal, about 150,000 companies with 4.5 million workers are now involved in the construction industry.(31)