RI must transform labor force: Dorodjatun

RI must transform labor force: Dorodjatun

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta

Indonesia has to transform its labor force, especially in this
era of globalization, to improve competitiveness and productivity
if it wants to speed up economic recovery, says a senior
minister.

"The government, in the next five years, has to be able to
improve the quality of the work force, particularly their
productivity, to achieve economic growth of 7 percent or more,"
said the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun
Kuntjoro-Jakti.

During his speech to mark the launch of the 2004-2009 national
manpower improvement plan here on Wednesday, he said that the
first step would be to limit population growth by intensifying
the family planning programs. Then, the government must see that
it has no alternative but to improve the quality of human
resources in this country since almost 70 percent of workers are
poorly educated and unskilled. Unemployment numbers have also
reached alarming levels.

"We must come down to earth in designing our labor policy for
the next five years, otherwise the labor issues will become more
complicated and our workers will not have the skills to work
internationally, which would mean Indonesia, as a country, would
never be able to compete with even the other countries in the
Southeast Asian region," he said.

He explained that the government must raise the national
standard of graduation at all education levels in order to
improve the quality of human resources. It also must establish
many training/apprenticeship centers to train graduates in such a
way that they can compete in the domestic and international labor
market.

"Besides improving the quality of human resources, workers
also have to improve their work ethos and culture in order to
improve their productivity," he added.

He explained that most workers employed in the manufacturing
and agricultural sector have no concept of corporate culture and
could not improve their productivity because of their low
education and skills.

Dorodjatun, a former professor of Economics at the University
of Indonesia and Indonesia's former ambassador to the United
States, explained that Indonesia would carry out numerous
infrastructure mega-projects that would absorb a lot of workers,
both skilled and unskilled, over the next five years in its
attempt to reach an increase to 5 percent in economic growth from
the current 4 percent. But he warned that the skilled jobs would
go to foreigners unless more was done here to improve.

"The government is planning to rehabilitate seaports and
airports in almost all provinces, as well as the tunnel
connecting Sumatra and Java and the Trans-Kalimantan railway
project. All of these require skilled workers. If we do not
prepare skilled workers, those jobs will go to skilled foreign
workers," he warned.

Meanwhile, Director of the Training and Productivity Center at
the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry Mudjiman said the next
government should raise the education budget to improve the
quality of education and establish a cross-department agency to
handle the unemployment problem and improve the quality of
workers.

"The improvement of educational quality is a key requirement
so that it will be easier for private companies and government
agencies to provide on-the-job training for fresh graduates. This
will help create conditions that are conducive to investment and
support the government's program to encourage the real sector to
grow faster," he said.

Mudjiman explained that the government had to continue
promoting an "employment-friendly" investment program, increasing
the number of infrastructure projects in the state budget and
providing credit with low interest rates for small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) to help cope with the pressing unemployment
problem.