RI misses out in Taiwan labor market

RI misses out in Taiwan labor market

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is missing out in the lucrative job markets in Taiwan because the government has been slow in renewing the licenses of manpower supplier companies, an executive of the industry said.

T.M. Batubara, deputy chairman of the association of Indonesian companies that export workers to Taiwan, said that 36 companies in the association have not been able to send workers because their operational licenses have not been renewed.

"The companies have been forced to cancel the departure of hundreds of workers to Taiwan because they do not have the new licenses," Batubara told Antara.

Taiwan, this year, plans to import 70,000 foreign workers. Indonesia has been given a quota of 5,000, he said.

Batubara, who owns the manpower supplier company PT Oring Jabu Jaya, said Taiwan is a prosperous market for Indonesian workers because the minimum wage level, set by the government, is far higher than those of Malaysia or Saudi Arabia, the two major destinations of Indonesian workers.

The Ministry of Manpower ordered last year 300 manpower supplier companies to re-register after it tightened regulations, in order to instill some order in the lucrative but chaotic business of sending workers abroad.

So far, the government has only renewed the license of 52 companies. (rms)