Monday 18 January 2016

FACING COMPETITION OF WORKERS IN THE ASEAN REGION, THIS IS DONE BY BNSP



The National Professional Certification Board (BNSP) will perform professional certification in facing competition of the workers in the ASEAN region within the framework of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) starting later this year. According to BNSP, certification program covers 12 sectors, seven sectors in agro products, rubber, timber and other forest products, and the other 5 sector are in the area of services, i.e. logistics, health, tourism, air transportation, and communication & information.

Chairman of BNSP Sumarno F. Abdurahman, in Jakarta, (September 10), stated that from 12 priority sector, only one whose competence certificate has been recognized in ASEAN, namely tourism. While other strategic sector particularly product sector, have not been built, for example, agro and timber sectors.”This condition is considered very alarming”, he said.

Therefore, BNSP made a break trough by adopting competency standards of Australia. According to Sumarna, Australia has issued an official an official letter from the department of education and training that BNSP is allowed to adopt competency standards for 12 priority sector of ASEAN. According to him, Indonesia is late compared to other countries. In the Philippines, there are now 600.000 certified workers for tourism.

Sumarno said that government is also exploring to implement Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA) with three countries in the ASEAN region, namely Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Currently, Indonesia and other ASEAN countries have performed a deal of recognition in eight sectors, namely accounting service, engineering workers, surveyors, architects, nursing personal, medical personnel, dental care, and tourism.

The Indonesia government, said Sumarno, plans to add MRA in other sectors i.e. sectors which become priorities of the government in the AEC, namely logistic, aviation service, workers in fisheries and agriculture sector as well as wood & rubber. Meanwhile, ASEAN counties have agreed to harmonies standardization in the sectors, but they are not willing to perfume MRA.

Meanwhile, as part of the readiness of the competition, BNSP proposed to the Ministry of Labor to implement mandatory training for the entire work force in the country. Sumarno said that mandatory training is required to provide education and training to the young work force that to be ready to enter the job market. He added that the mandatory training program will focus on targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially export-oriented ones. So far, SME entrepreneurs have not had the skill to market their products.

Not only SMEs, according to Sumarno, BNSP also proposes tax relief incentives to industries that hire certified workers. He said that during this time, the industrial sector fear that in hiring certified workers will demand higher pay.

Such tax incentives have been introduced in the 1990s, but did not go smoothly. BNSP prepares another solution. The second is to give grants to industry associations so they will create competency standards.

He reminded the certification is very important to improve the competitiveness of Indonesian workers in the international arena, particularly in relation to the standard harmonization with ASEAN countries are able to compete. (E). 

Business New - September 16, 2015

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