Foto: Ilustration, source: Liputan6.com
Stramed, The Indonesian government has allocated Rp492.5 trillion in the 2019 state budget to enhance the quality of human resources and educational facilities. “Under the state budget policy, 20 percent of more than Rp492.5 trillion (of the state budget fund) this year is earmarked to improve the quality of human resources, including civil servant and non-civil servant teachers, infrastructure and facilities, and pupils,” Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati stated after attending a function marking the 38th anniversary of PGRI University in Semarang, Central Java. The minister underscored the need for the business world to participate in the promotion of human resources. “Hence, we recently used the fiscal incentives or provide tax reduction of 200 to 300 percent for vocational education and for research and innovation,” she noted.
While addressing the event to mark the 38th anniversary of PGRI University, she remarked that the government had continued to optimally utilize the state budget fund and fiscal policy to tackle various issues in the educational world. The government has continued to prioritize the use of 20 percent of the state budget fund to increase the Indonesian children’s access to quality education, he emphasized. To help increase the access of less fortunate children to quality basic educational services, the government has launched the Smart Indonesia Program (PIP) and schools’ operational funds.
This year, a total of 20.1 million students received assistance under the PIP scheme as compared to 19.5 million a year earlier. In the meantime, the number of students receiving school operational funds had increased sharply to 60 million in 2018.
Previously, Minister of National Development Planning and Chief of the National Development Planning
Agency (Bappenas) Bambang Brodjonegoro drew attention to major challenges facing the government’s human resource development program. Addressing the Indonesian Development Forum 2019 here on Monday, the minister remarked that Indonesia’s human resource competitiveness was currently lower than that of other Asian countries.
According to a human resource index, Indonesia ranks 65th out of the 130 countries assessed and is behind Malaysia that came 33rd, Thailand at 40th ranking, the Philippines at 50th ranking, and Vietnam at 64th position.
Several Indonesian workers are engaged in the informal sector and with reportedly low productivity. The manufacturing sector has failed to become the main driver for job creation, he noted.
Another challenge is poor access for vulnerable groups, such as women and people with disabilities, to quality job opportunities, he pointed out. Most susceptible groups work in the informal sector, as they hardly have access to jobs in the formal sector and inclusive working environment. To respond to those challenges, the development of human resources in Indonesia must be carried out in a holistic and integrated manner, he stated.
To successfully produce capable, adaptive, creative, and innovative human resources, the government must provide basic services and social protection; equal health services and quality education; as well as scientific, technological, and innovative developments, he emphasized.
The country’s productive sector must be strengthened to create job opportunities and to address poverty, unemployment, and social gap.
“Creating quality job opportunities through structural transformation, improvement in the investment climate, increase in entrepreneurship, improvement in the competitiveness of MSMEs (micro small medium enterprises), and social business, are also among crucial focus areas in the development of human resources,” the minister added.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani says the government has allocated Rp 10.3 trillion (US$737.51 million) for preemployment cards as part of a program designed to aid job seekers in accessing skills training.
The cards were among three types President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo promised to issue upon his reelection.
The two others are the Indonesia Smart Card (KIP) for university education and affordable staple food cards for low-income households.
Sri Mulyani said on Monday that as many as 1 million preemployment cards would be issued, while another million cards would be issued specifically for digital training.
The minister said the allocation of the cards and other promises made by Jokowi would be included in the draft 2020 state budget, which would be delivered by Jokowi to the House of Representatives during the annual financial note address on Aug. 16.
Speaking in a Cabinet meeting on Monday, Jokowi said the government would prioritize its spending next year to improve human capital resources, highlighting the importance of government spending on education, health care and skills training.
“The draft of the 2020 state budget will be prioritized for human capital resources, such as education, health care and skills training,” said Jokowi. The government has also allocated Rp 12.4 trillion for KIP and Rp 25.7 trillion for the affordable staple foods card.
Actually and obviously said Agung Wahyudin, enhancing the quality of human resources in Indonesia has been bothering by “like and dislike” policy.
“The impacts of those policies has made the optimalization of human resources potential just “sweet dream” in Indonesia and its will be challenged by Jokowi at his second term presidential period,” said Agung who is social and culture observer. (Red/many sources)