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Indonesia's Pandemic Response: A Law to Create Millions of Jobs

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - A landmark law passed this month in Indonesia will
   open the populous, impoverished country to labor-intensive industry
   like many of its Southeast Asian neighbors despite a hit to worker
   rights, people on the ground say.

   The 905-page Omnibus Bill on Job Creation bill will give millions of
   young people chances to work, including in formal jobs that can be hard
   to find because older Indonesian laws discouraged foreign investors
   from setting up factories, analysts believe.

   Indonesians are struggling to earn income during an unrelenting
   COVID-19 outbreak that prompted shutdowns from April. The nation with
   nearly 400,000 infections reported a sharp drop in retail sales from
   April through August and a fall in exports over the three months ending
   in September.

   "With this new law, it is expected that the investment would come not
   only to the Indonesian economy, but also come to the labor-intensive
   part, and by getting more investment in that area it is expected that
   more jobs will be created, and those jobs are more ofthe quality jobs,
   not only informal jobs," saidYoseRizalDamuri, economics department head
   with the Center for Strategic and International Studies research
   organization in Jakarta.

   Indonesia's government and House of Representatives passed the bill
   ahead of schedule on October 5, theJakarta Postreported.The bill aims
   to cut bureaucracy and make it easier for investors to create jobs,
   said Richard Borsuk, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
   adjunct senior fellow in Singapore.

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