'RI not competitive in formal sectors'
'RI not competitive in formal sectors'
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara
Indonesia is not ready to compete with workers from Malaysia,
Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand in the formal labor
sector in the region, according to government officials.
They said that Indonesian workers could only compete in the
informal sector like working as domestic helpers or in the low-
paid sectors such as in construction or plantation sectors.
The director of competence certification and standardization
at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, Widodo Prayitno,
said Indonesian workers were capable of competing in the informal
sector because 72 percent of the 80 million workforce in this
sector were elementary and high school graduates or dropouts.
"Our workers have been able to compete with foreign workers in
other ASEAN countries only in the informal sector," he said on
the sidelines of the three-day ASEAN senior labor officials
meeting here on Monday.
"Eighty percent of Indonesian workers working in Malaysia and
Singapore are employed as domestic helpers, machine operators,
golf course caddies or shop attendants. They are given the jobs
because local workers won't to do such jobs," he added.
Edison Situmorang, chairman of the Indonesian delegation to
the meeting here, shared the same view and said Indonesian
professionals could also compete in Singapore and Malaysia,
especially because Indonesians would accept lower pay.
"We are seeking to obtain low- and middle-level job
opportunities in the countries because our workers are ready to
accept lower pay or because their workers won't take the jobs due
to the low pay," he said on the sidelines of the meeting.
The meeting was attended by senior labor officials from the 10
ASEAN countries. The meeting precedes the ASEAN two-day labor
ministerial meeting that will be opened by President Megawati
Soekarnoputri on Thursday.
Edison said all delegations to the senior officials meeting
were formulating common competency standards for professionals
from ASEAN member countries.
"We are preparing competency standards that could be jointly
accepted in ASEAN countries so that countries facing human
resources problems could take concrete measures to improve the
quality of their human resources," he said.
Setting common standards is a necessary step toward
liberalizing labor markets in the ASEAN region.
The ASEAN Free Trade Area has not yet touched the labor sector
as the free trade arrangement only covers trade in goods, thus
sparing Indonesia from the onslaught of professionals from
neighboring countries.
Edison said that currently many workers from Singapore,
Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines had been working in the
executive level in Indonesia but their number was quite small.
He remarked that entering the free trade era in workers,
workers would be free to move from one country to another within
the ASEAN region.
Both Edison and Widodo recognized the importance of education
to improve the competitiveness of Indonesian workers.
Widodo regretted that during the New Order era, the government
did not pay serious attention to education, causing low quality
human resources.
In addition, ethnic and religious conflicts in several regions
such as Aceh, Poso in Central Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua have
contributed to the poor quality of the workforce from those
areas, he added.
"The irony is that entering the reform era, we are failing
again to pay attention to education," he said.
As a result, professionals graduating from certain recognized
institutions could work in the neighboring countries.
Citing an example, Widodo said Singapore and Malaysia accepted
only medical doctors who graduated from the University of
Indonesia. They consider doctors from other universities as
incompetent because the institutions have no adequate medical
facilities for their students to get hands-on experience.