Workers operate sewing machines at a garment factory in Bogor, West Java. (Photo: Antara) Jakarta (VNA) – A survey conducted by the Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO) has found that Indonesia’s productivity in the manufacturing industryis lower than that of its peers in other Southeast Asian countries.
The surveycaptured Japanese companies' perception of the business climate in 20 countriesin Asia and Oceania, including in Indonesia, in which the companies haveaffiliations.
According tothe survey, Indonesia’s manufacturing plants’ productivity only scored 74.4with an assumption that the respondents’ Japanese companies’ productivitywas 100. The country’s score is lower than that of the Philippines,Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam of 86.3, 82.7, 80.1 and 80.0,respectively.
Indonesia’sproductivity is also lower than that of Laos and Malaysia, which stood at 76.7and 76.2, respectively.
One of themain reasons why Indonesia’s industry lags behind Thailand or Vietnam is theformer’s dependence on commodities that hampers manufacturing sectordevelopment, said JETRO’s Jakarta senior director, Wataru Ueno.
Due to freetrade agreements, many industrial products are exported to Indonesia, so theprivate sector chooses to invest in the resources sector, not the manufacturingsector, and avoids competition with Chinese products, he added.
The surveyalso revealed that Indonesia had the best productivity only in precision machinerywhere it scored at 100.25.
The Indonesiangovernment is striving to enhance the country’s workforce skills andproductivity by developing vocational training centers, allocating more statebudget funds for human resources developing and preparing a pre-employment cardprogram to provide training incentives for workers, among other measures.
Indonesianeeds at least 113 million skilled workers by 2030 to achieve economic growthin priority sectors, such as manufacturing, infrastructure and agribusiness.The figure almost doubles the current number of skilled workers./.
VNA
