"I have often received complaints from employers in a number of ASEAN member countries who need TKIs but they would either not allow it or impose too tight regulations," Moh Jumhur Hidayat, head of the Indonesian Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesia Workers Overseas (PNP2TKI), said here on Friday.
Data on the placement of Indonesian migrant workers in the Asia Pacific region in 2010 indicated that there were only three countries which had accepted TKIs.
Based on the data, Malaysia had received 116,056 TKIs, Singapore 39,623 and Brunei Darussalam 7,360 TKIs. There was no TKI recruitment in the Philippines, Vietnam, Combodia, Myanmar, Laos and Thialand.
The Philippines is the competitor country of Indonesia in the placement of workers abroad.
The BNP2TKI was quite sure that TKIs were quite ready if ASEAN countries opened themselves to the manpower market.
"We have a lot of workers who have skills, semi-skills and who are professionals. These people are ready to be recruited in ASEAN member countries," Jumhur Hidayat said.
But the problem Indonesia is facing now is that not all of the ASEAN countries were prepared to open doors for TKIs, so Indonesian formal workers have no much prospect to work in those countries.
He said that the Indonesian government was launching intensive promotions of its former workers in various countries in Europe, Australia, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea and others.
"Japan and countries in the Middle East are main destinations for Indonesian migrant nursery workers. They admitted that the Indonesian nurses have good skills. Demand for Indonesian nurses from these countries continue to increase every year," the BNP2TKIS chief said.(*)
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Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
