RI's wood industry needs 20,000 skilled workers

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's wood industry needs almost 20,000 technically skilled workers in the coming six years, timber tycoon Mohammad (Bob) Hasan said yesterday.

He said at the singing ceremony of the cooperation agreement between his Kalimanis Group and PT Mutuagung Lestari, that there are currently about 5,300 skilled workers toiling in forest concessionaires across the archipelago.

Bambang Guritno of the Center for Forestry Training and Education of the Ministry of Forestry noted that a large number of skilled workers who graduated from high schools are still badly needed in the wood industry.

"We cannot produce such workers in such big numbers because there are only five forestry high schools all over the country," Bambang said, adding that the five schools produce only forest rangers who are mostly employed by the ministry.

To cope with the problem, Bambang said, his ministry will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Culture to produce more skilled forestry workers.

When asked about the forestry workers who graduated from universities, Bambang said "we have enough stock" because many universities have forestry faculties.

Achmad Sumitro, dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that many university graduates are now seeking jobs with forest concessionaires.

"They are now looking for job opportunities at forest concessionaires since they can no longer rely on the government to employ them," Sumitro said.

Yesterday's agreement assigned Mutuagung Lestari, a surveyor of wood products, to conduct on-the-job and in-house training for some 500 new employees of the Kalimanis Group.

"An additional 24,540 forestry technical workers are expected to help increase the competitive edge of the country's wood products, especially when the eco-labeling of tropical wood comes into effect in the year 2000," Hasan said. (rid)