TO MINIMIZE JOBLESSNESS, GOVERNMENT MUST FOCUS ON LABOR INTENSIVE INDUSTRY

The Government was urged to focus attention on labor intensive industry because this industry was highly absorbent to workers. In a condition where their was imbalance in the labor market, i.e. job opportunities less then labor force, the Government was expected to adopt a policy which potentially could jack up labor industry in the real sector. Chairman of the Indonesian Association of Business People (ASPINDO) Sofyan Wanandi disclosed in Jakarta on Friday (21/12/2012) that companies which used high technology like Information Technology (IT) were not absorbing labor to the maximum. Therefore it was best for the Government to inject incentive to labor intensive industries.

Sofyan disclosed that the application of high technology in the industry sector would promote efficiency in industry; but the consequences was that at least 200,000 people would lose their jobs each year. Statistical data showed that the impact of new technology and demand for working efficiency caused employment capacity to drop by 200,000 workers per year for every one percent of economic growth. Based on data of the Ministry of Industry, in 2012 the Government claimed that the number of workers employed in the national manufacturing industry would come to 8.18 million people. This means an increase of around 431,000 workers compared to 2011 wich numbered 7,74 workers. The number of workers was exclusive of those working for the small industry and the informal sector.

The Ministry of industry was obliged to identify potentials and run various programs and activities to accommodate workers in the national manufacturing industry sectors. It was disclosed there were six industrial sectors which had the potential to absorb workers in the national manufacturing industry sectors, i.e. food & beverages, tobacco, textile-and textile products (TPT), footwear, furniture, petrochemicals, and small-and-medium industry (IKM). “The Government should continue to assist players of the industry by easing their investments so they could open new employment opportunities” Sofyan remarked.

The Government needed to support local and foreign investors not just to create employment but also to step up worker’s competence. Businesspeople and employees needed to be dependent on each other so the enterprise they shared might run well or even develop. Sofyan reminded that if industrial climate were conductive to progress, unemployment could be overcome and further had the positive impact on the effort to eliminate property. Labor-intensive industry would be the industry that the Government relied on hence it was expected that local and foreign investors could collaborate in synergy.

Sofyan saw that labor industry was one of the ways to anticipate unemployment explosion due to Indonesia’s moratorium of TKI migrant workers to Saudi Arabia. He said that moratorium policy could breeze hope for independence. However, serious approach by the Government wold be needed. Therefore, he also asked the Legislative to support the effort of human resources development by approving sufficient budget.

Education and training at home in Indonesia would help to resist the temptation to work overseas. They preferred to run a small business in their own home town or becoming workers in local factories. He explained that the industrial sectors which could accommodate many workers were the textile industry producing textile-and-textile product (TPT), and industry sectors producing footwear, plastic wares, transportation vehicles, machinery and equipments, food & beverage, and tobacco. Therefore he was expecting that such training would be developed not just for the textile industry but also vocational skills etc. (SS)

Business News - December 28, 2012