Government Asked to Forestall Impact of AEC on Employment

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The government needs to forestall a surge in the number of foreign workers to ward off social problems in the country, a lawmaker said.

Chairman of Commission III of the Parliament Saleh Partaonan Daulay said recruitment of expatriates at the expense of Indonesian workers would result in an increase in worse unemployment and social problems in the country.

"Unemployment means gap in social welfare and poverty," Saleh said, adding the government would face bigger problem of eradicating poverty.

The government, therefore, needs to seriously address the problem by creating more jobs and restricting recruitment of foreign workers.

"The government has to work out a breakthrough to improve the quality of Indonesian workers to be more competitive in open market," he said.

Saleh quoted figures at the Central Bureau of Statistics as saying that until end of February this year, 25,326 expatriates already entered the country, rising 69.3 percent from last year.

"This is an early negative impact of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)as Indonesian workers are less competitive facing expatriates," he said.

Related agencies such as the Labor Ministry, the National Body for Labor protection and Recruitment (BNP2TKI), the Social Affairs Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry should coordinate in taking the necessary steps, he said.

Saleh said Indonesia should not become a passive market for other ASEAN member countries, adding with such big potential the country should be more competitive.

Meanwhile, chairwoman of the Presidential Advisory Board Sri Adiningsih said the government has continued to seek improvement in the quality of the country's human resources to be competitive in the free trade area of AEC.

AEC creates a big opportunity for Indonesia to expand, but currently Indonesia is still in the middle in the quality of human resources, Sri said at a function on 'Moderation to prevent Radicalism and Terrorism Toward Creating Asean Economic Community, at an Islamic boarding school Al-Hikam in Depok on Tuesday.

"Indonesia is the leader in size of population, but in competitiveness and social welfare we are in the middle," she added.

Indonesia is poor in competitiveness as it is still lagging behind in education, she added.

She said 40 percent of Indonesians have only educational backgrounds of elementary school, and Singapore which barley has natural resources, is highly competitive. (WDY)