Coordinating Minister Airlangga: Quality Of Human Resources Is A Consideration For Investors Investing In Indonesia

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hatarto (Photo: Public Relations)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto assesses that employment issues are an important part of development progress and the national economy.

The government itself has set national development targets for the 2019-2024 period, which focuses on increasing investment.

In the employment context, there are a number of reasons why the role of investment is so important. Namely, opening up employment opportunities, increasing opportunities for technology and knowledge transfer, strengthening the quality of human resources (HR), encouraging increased productivity, and contributing to national economic growth.

Airlangga said, improving labor productivity can be done with the support of qualified human resources. One of them is by accelerating HR capabilities through training.

"Quality of qualified human resources will improve productivity levels, and of course, it will be the main consideration for domestic and foreign investors when they will invest in Indonesia," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga, while representing President Joko Widodo, at the "Kick-Off Vocational Training in 2022" event, virtually, Saturday, March 19, quoted Monday, March 21.

Airlangga, who is also the General Chair of the Golkar Party's Central Executive Board (DPP), added that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced human resources to be able to keep pace with the acceleration in the digital sector.

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy predicts that Indonesian workers need flexibility and competence in the digital field to be more qualified in the future.

He emphasized that vocational training is part of accelerating national HR competencies for future needs.

“All workers must be prepared and used to face a lifelong pattern of self-development. This means that vocational training for re-skilling and up-skilling is part of lifelong learning as a work-life balance effort," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Airlangga admitted, vocational training is a solution to accelerate the fulfillment of skilled workforce needs. According to him, vocational training personnel will play an important role for the progress of Indonesia.

In addition to vocational training, Airlangga asked the Ministry of Manpower as the coordinator of vocational training development with all relevant parties, especially the industrial world, to be more adaptive to changes. Especially in the development of digital competence.

"Not to forget, we must also integrate labor social security and labor market information services in order to be able to protect workers during a crisis," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

The chairman of the Covid-19 Handling Committee and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN) emphasized that there are tax incentives of up to 200 percent of investments made by companies or industries that support vocational training.

"I hope that the link and match program with this pattern can continue to be encouraged and realized because for the industrial world this means that this is done according to need. The costs are bailed out by the industry and paid by the government up to twice as much, or you could say the incentive is 100 percent," said Airlangga.