"The number of foreign workers is now only around 10-15 percent," he stated in a video on his Instagram account on Wednesday.
Those foreign workers were needed during the initial stage of mining operations, he explained.
"We did not have the quality of human resources to do it at that time," he said.
Nevertheless, he ensured that the number of foreign workers would decline as more local human resources were being trained for the downstream industry.
"Now, in stages, the percentage is declining because there have been many people that we have trained. That is a process that we must go through," he explained.
Pandjaitan said that a metal industry polytechnic had also been established in Morowali District, Central Sulawesi, in order to create a competent industrial workforce.
He also stated that several students of the polytechnic were sent to learn in China, and currently, those students have become part of a smelter construction project in Sulawesi.
"A polytechnic has been established there. I think it is good, and the lecturers are high-class. There are some from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and the University of Indonesia (UI) that we invite to teach there," he remarked.
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Translator: Benardy Ferdianysah, Raka Adji
Editor: Anton Santoso
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