Trade fair boon to work-hungry youths
By Wahyudi M. Pratopo
JAKARTA (JP): The annual ongoing Jakarta Fair turns in not only good for business promotion, it also introduces youngsters to the world of work.
Hundreds of students are spending their current month-long vacation working at the fair where city residents turn up in huge numbers each night for different purposes: just to look around at the latest consumer products, or to dance to free live Dangdut music.
The gala, organized in commemoration of the 468th anniversary of Jakarta, is highly popular, especially among Jakartans of the lower and middle classes.
The night fair at Kemayoran benefits a wide spectrum of society: street vendors, business people in all sectors, students and unemployed people. The list is endless.
Every night, the place is literally crammed by thousands of visitors and vendors who offer anything from fried bananas, toys and handicrafts to traditional medicines.
But there is something outstanding there this season: the great number of youngsters working at the stands and ticket counters. Many of them are students doing their apprenticeships during their vacation.
"The fair provides jobs to a huge number of people around here," Soeparmadi, the personnel manager of PT Jakarta International Trade Fair Corporation (PT JITC), which organizes the festivity told The Jakarta Post.
The fair inaugurated by Vice President Try Soetrisno on June 17 will last until July 15. More than 2,400 local and foreign companies, as well as regional administrations nationwide, are participating in the event.
The organizer expects up to three million people to show up at this year's fair.
To reach the target, PT Jakarta International Trade Fair, in cooperation with city bus company, PPD, has mobilized 833 buses to pick up and return passengers from all corners of this city of almost 10 million people.
Soeparmadi said that more than 20,000 people work at the Jakarta fair. PT JITC alone has hired 875 people to make the event a success. They were selected from among more than 5,000 applicants.
PT JITC pays people to do a wide range of jobs, from selling tickets and administering transactions to guarding the gates.
The Jakarta Fair's organizer pays each of its employees wages ranging between Rp 7,500 for menial workers to Rp 32,000 for physicians per day.
"We want to pay our workers over the regional minimum wage," Soeparmadi said. The daily minimum wage in Jakarta is set at Rp 4,800.
According to him, all of the employees are at least senior high school graduates. Some of them are university graduates and students.
All of the 24 information officers, who earn Rp 27,000 a day, are university students, he said, because they have to be smart, communicative, and attractive.
Information officer, Theresia B. Marlina said: "I like this job because I can help people with the information that visitors need to know. Besides, I can spend my time productively."
Each participant hires at least eight workers but some hire up to more than 100. The West Sumatra pavilion employs only eight workers, all of them Jakarta university students. It pays them Rp 30,000 (US$13) per day.
The South Kalimantan pavilion hires 16 people from Banjarmasin, including 10 craftsmen. A craftsman, Zaenal Ilmi, said that he gets Rp 10,000 per day in transport allowance and a return air ticket.
"We use this event to promote and sell our own products here," the diamond craftsman said.
Herlina Widianingsih, an attendant at the Coca Cola vending machine said that she earns her regular pay of Rp 7,700 a day and she gets an additional Rp 50 for each glass of softdrink she sells.
PT Coca Cola has hired 200 people for the current fair, she said.
Bag maker PT Diravine Kencana, based in Pulo Gadung in East Jakarta, has hired eight people it pays Rp 10,000 per day each, its stand attendant said.