Investment Growth In Indonesia Is Not Compared To Work Field

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Investment/Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Bahlil Lahadalia, revealed that the high growth of investment entering Indonesia did not necessarily open up wide employment opportunities in the country.

"I have to admit that investment growth which reaches 30 percent is more indiscriminately proportional to job growth," he said in a meeting with Commission VI of the DPR, written Tuesday, February 7.

Bahlil said, job opportunities created from year to year are very small.

"Because from 2021 our job opportunities are more than 1.2 million and then in 2022 1.3 million more, the growth is no more than 10 percent," he said.

The reason, said Bahlil, was because many investors innovated by investing their funds for high technology. So as to suppress the use of human resources.

Ini betul-betul mengalami dynamic yang sangat luar biasa ya di sisi lain terjadi COVID-19. COVID-19 itu kan (buat) orang hampir tidak bisa kerja. Tetapi perusahaan harus survive maka ada terobosan inovasi baru yang dilakukan oleh perusahaan yang melakukan investasi dengan melakukan blending antara dasat karya dan dasat modal atau high technology, tuturnya.

Bahlil admitted that he could not do much. Because, said Bahlil, investors also have economical calculations. Therefore, Bahlil admitted that it was difficult to direct investors to invest in what sector.

"I have to be honest to say that getting around to direct people to invest in this sector is not an easy job. Because this is not state budget money or not just state-owned money and people are making investments here, they are making investments that have economic value," he explained.

However, said Bahlil, even though investors invest in high-tech investments, the government is trying to force employment during the construction period.

"In this construction, we force them to use human labor, labor intensive during construction, which we cannot use engine power, until that we carry out assistance in order to really during the contraction period create jobs. That's an example because I don't want this investment to be just numbers," he said.