RI Minister Of Manpower Welcomes Saudi Arabia's Offer On Formal Workforce Placement

Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah during a meeting with the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development of Saudi Arabia Ahmed Al-Rajhi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia Ida Fauziyah positively welcomed the offer of cooperation from the Government of Saudi Arabia regarding the placement of formal sector workers in the professional examination scheme.

"We welcome the offer from Saudi Arabia and have expressed a willingness to hold further meetings," said the Minister, Ida Fauziyah, in a written statement received in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Sunday, October 31.

The offer of cooperation came after the Minister of Manpower met with the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development of Saudi Arabia Ahmed Al-Rajhi in Dubai. Saudi Arabia expressed hope that Indonesia could participate in the scheme.

Welcoming the offer, Ida stated that the Government of Indonesia currently has a policy of trying to increase the placement of Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) in the formal sector.

The bilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia agreed on several outcomes, including the establishment of cooperation in the placement and protection of migrant workers in the formal sector in a professional examinations scheme and a review of a Technical Agreement related to the One Channel Placement System (SPSK).

"We agreed to form a joint working group between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia to follow up on the project implementation process (one channel system/SPSK)," said Ida.

Not only that, another discussion was regarding the follow-up to the Saudi Arabian Government's offer of a cooperation plan for the placement of professional workers, especially the placement of non-domestic workers.

"The Saudi Arabian government needs about 20,000 nurses who have the ability to speak English or Arabic," she said.

The meeting with Ahmed Al-Rajhi also touched on three issues. First, the issue of protection rights and the environment, which involves labor reform initiatives, authentication of work contracts, labor attaché projects, and wage protection programs.

Second, regarding digital transformation, namely the integrated labor market portal “Qiwa”, the skills verification program, and the “Wedy” ecosystem dispute resolution.

The third discussion is about domestic workers, related to the authentication of recruitment applications, contract insurance, and wage protection programs.