Work training center for Irianese

JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya: The Fak Fak regency government and copper company PT Freeport Indonesia are building a vocational training center for indigenous people in Timika.

Fak Fak regent Suparlan Pasambuna said Wednesday that the center aims at providing the natives with skills needed to help PT Freeport build the Rp 6 trillion New Town near Timika.

"The development of New Town and PT Freeport's plan to jerk up its production will open numerous job opportunities of the locals," the regent said as quoted by Antara.

The Tembagapura-based PT Freeport is 80 percent owned by American Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, 10 percent by Indonesian Bakri Group's Indocopper Investama and 10 percent by the Indonesian government.

The local government expects that in the future, the natives can take over the better-paid positions in the company currently dominated by professionals from other provinces and abroad.

Indigenous people have donated 17,500 hectares of their communal land for the modern New Town project that will be home to about 30,000 Freeport employees. (pan)