Government Will Send 500,000 Welders And Restaurant Workers Abroad

JAKARTA - The government will send Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI), especially welders and tourism sector workers (hospitalities) abroad. The target is that as many as 500,000 PMIs can be dispatched.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said the sending of the PMI was an instruction from President Prabowo Subianto.

The statement was made after a coordination meeting (rakor) to accelerate the government's strategic program with the Minister of Finance (Menkeu), Purbaya Yudhi Sadive; Minister of State Secretariat (Mensesneg), Prasetyo Hadi; Minister of ATR/Head of BPN, Nusron Wahid; Minister of Tourism, Widiyanti Putri Wardhana; Minister of MSMEs, Maman Abdurrahman; and Minister of Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (KP2MI), Mukhtarudin.

"It was discussed in detail, namely the direction of the President in yesterday's cabinet meeting to prepare 500,000 of our workers in the field of welder and hospitality," said Airlangga at the office of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, Jakarta, Wednesday, October 22.

Airlangga said the government had also prepared a budget of IDR 8 trillion to facilitate the delivery of the hundreds of thousands of PMIs.

"The budget provided is around Rp. 8 trillion. So this will be in line with the apprenticeship program," explained Airlangga.

Airlangga said, the program will be coordinated between the Ministry of KP2MI and the Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker).

"This was in the discussion that the Minister of P2MI asked him to coordinate," he said.

Furthermore, Airlangga said that many countries need welding interpreters and tourism workers. He said this condition was seen as an opportunity by Indonesia.

"It has become a discussion when the President meets bilaterally with various countries, because various countries need these two professions," he said.

In addition, Airlangga said the government was preparing scholarships to be provided through the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Kemdiktisaintek). This step was taken to meet the needs of general practitioners and dentists in Indonesia.

"Then the second is related to the needs of doctors, specialists and general practitioners and dentists, which amounted to 20,000, the Minister of Research and Technology is preparing. Because later it will be given through a scholarship program," he said.

Airlangga said the doctor's scholarship recipients would be assigned by the government to work in the regions.

"Of course later it will be directed that they work in areas that are indeed assigned by the government," said Airlangga.