Indonesia-Australia Strengthen MoU For Skill Development Exchange

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (as Amended) by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Manpower, Anwar Sanusi (right) and the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Penny William PSM in Jakarta, Friday (25/8/2023). (ANTARA/HO-Kemnaker)

JAKARTA - The Government of Indonesia and the Government of Australia have agreed to strengthen cooperation on the Indonesia-Australian Skills Development Exchange.

The agreement was marked by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Secretary General (Sekjen) of the Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) Anwar Sanusi and the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Penny William PSM reported by ANTARA, Friday, August 25.

Anwar Sanusi in his statement said the new MoU was a change to the MoU on the Indonesia-Australia Skills Development Exchange Pilot Project under the framework of the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economics Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) which was signed on March 4, 2019.

The pilot project or pilot project is aimed at opening up individual exchange opportunities that have the skills to be able to work in the short term for six months in companies domiciled in Indonesia or Australia so that they can train and improve their skills by working in certain sectors according to their expertise background.

"However, for about four years this MoU was implemented, its implementation experienced several obstacles and challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and border restoration, so that the implementation of the MoU could not run optimally to get benefits and meet the pilot project quota target agreed upon by both Australia and Indonesia," said AnwarSansui.

Therefore, the governments of the two countries coordinated by the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia took the initiative to review the MoU as one of the efforts to improve the pilot process and mechanism in accordance with applicable regulations in each country, so that this MoU provides more benefits and is easy to implement.

"Alhamdulillah, for the cooperation of all relevant parties together with us, the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, namely colleagues from the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights, businessmen from Kadin and Apindo, and of course the support from the Australian Government, the discussion on this MoU review can be completed," he said.

In this new MoU, there are several important things that have been agreed upon by both parties, including allowing individuals who have the appropriate skills to be placed in companies between Indonesia and Australia in certain sectors for up to 12 months.

Then facilitate exchanges to share practical skills and work experience, and strengthen business, government and cultural understanding, in both countries.

In addition, he said, strengthening cooperation between two-state government institutions in the development of collaborative skills, and enabling business actors to provide workplace-based training and experience targeted at employees to improve skills competence.

In this MoU change, the governments of the two countries have also agreed to add several sectors to this skills development exchange so that it includes financial and insurance services, mining, engineering, and related technical services.

In addition, information media and telecommunization services, tourism and travel-related services, creative economy, agribusiness and food processing, and the green economy. In its implementation, the two countries involve the role of entrepreneurs ang is a member of Business Peak Body (BPB).