RI to seek help on labor problems
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia hopes to use the ASEAN Labor Ministerial Meeting (ALMM) on May 8 and May 9 in Mataram, East Nusa Tenggara, to forge new agreements that will help it resolve its numerous labor problems.
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said the event, which is the 17th annual meeting of ASEAN labor ministers, was an important one for Indonesia.
He said the government hoped to use the forum to discuss with other ASEAN countries how to deal with numerous strategic issues, as well as seeking new agreements with ASEAN members and dialog partners on coping with its labor-related problems at home.
"The two-day meeting, which will be officially opened by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, will be a good opportunity for ASEAN labor ministers to share their experiences in coping with labor problems. Indonesia will also use the forum to pick up suggestions, forge bilateral cooperation and seek financial assistance to help solve numerous labor problems at home," the minister said here on Saturday.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Nuwa Wea said Indonesia would lobby ASEAN dialog partners South Korea, Japan and China for technical and financial assistance to promote small-scale enterprises in the informal sector, a national program aimed at coping with the unemployment problem.
"Besides enhancing direct cooperation with non-governmental organizations and world financial institutions, the government is looking for technical and financial aid to develop the informal sector. The formal sector, including industry, cannot absorb the labor force, which has reached 80 million," he said.
He said the government has carried out a number of projects in cooperation with South Korea and Japan to improve the skills of Indonesian workers, "but at present we want to cooperate on technical assistance and raising funds to empower small-scale companies to enable them to compete in regional and the global markets".
According to data from the manpower and transmigration ministry, there are about 30 million unemployed people in Indonesia, while the number of workers employed in the formal sector plus the plantation and agricultural sector is 40 million.
The government has encouraged the unemployed to look to the informal sector for work or to find employment overseas. However, the issue of terrorism, the Iraq war and the SARS scare have combined to hit the labor export market over the last six months.
The spokesman for the manpower and transmigration ministry, Hotma Panjaitan, said the ASEAN labor ministers would also discuss the standard competence of workers in the region, a crucial issue ahead of the implementation of the ASEAN free trade area (AFTA) this year.
"ASEAN should set a standard competence for all workers in the region when implementing AFTA, because its 10 member countries now have their own standards for their workers," he said, adding that Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar were concerned that workers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines would dominate the labor market in the region.
He said other issues that would be discussed at the ministerial meeting included a social security program and social protection for workers, an ASEAN program for industrial relations, an ASEAN skill competition and relations with the International Labor Organization, which will send a delegate to the meeting as an observer.
Panjaitan also said that before the two-day ministerial meeting, senior officials from ASEAN member countries and their dialog partners would hold a three-day meeting to evaluate the implementation of a joint communique drafted during the 16th ALMM in Vientine, Laos, in May last year.
"The meeting of senior officials also will prepare a draft joint communique on all issues to be discussed and signed by the labor ministers," he said.