'Schools not in sync with job market'

Desy Nurhayati and Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Education Minister Bambang Soedibyo said the government needed to synchronize fields of studies in schools and universities with the demand for labor in the market.

He said universities should reduce the quota for students in schools which have not "sold well" in the labor market.

"Programs that are demanded by the market can increase their quota," he said during a three-day Education Ministry national working meeting that ended here Wednesday.

"We also have to open more fields of studies that sell well in the market and not open new schools or new universities arbitrarily."

Speaking at the meeting's close, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on the education and industry sectors to work together with the government to reduce the increasing unemployment rate.

"The qualification of university graduates is still mismatched with the market demand," Yudhoyono said.

"Therefore, we have agreed to establish better and continuous coordination.

"We have conducted some studies to analyze the requirement of industry within the next five to 10 years."

Bambang said vocational schools could answer to market demands better than high schools and suggested regions open better focused vocational schools.

"Provinces like Bali or Yogyakarta, for example, can open more tourism, art or culture vocational schools, while those having an industrial or agricultural basis can open industry and agriculture-based vocational schools," he said.

The ministry said it was working toward creating a school market made up of 60 percent high schools and 40 percent vocational schools in each region.

"All provinces in Java Island and others like Bali, East Kalimantan and Gorontalo have exceeded the target, but others have yet to meet it," Bambang said.

"So we suggest that the latter build more vocational schools if they want to add the number of their high schools, or they can convert ordinary schools to vocational schools."

He also said diploma, polytechnic and professional programs could sell better in the labor market and suggested schools open more of these programs.

According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of unemployed people holding undergraduate degrees nearly tripled from 183,629 in 2006 to 409,890 in 2007.

The number of unemployed holding three-year diplomas also nearly tripled from 94,445 to 179,231, while the number of unemployed holding one-year and two-year diplomas increased from 130,519 to 151,085.

In total, the number of unemployed graduates from universities or academies increased from 408,593 in 2006 to 740,206 in 2007.

Japan's royalty to visit RI, celebrations

JAKARTA (Jakarta Post) : Japan's Prince Akishino and Princess Kawashimo Kiko are scheduled to visit Indonesia from Jan. 18 to 24 to attend celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Indonesia and Japan's diplomatic relations.

"The Japanese prince and princess will arrive here on the evening of January 18 to start their activities the next day," Presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told Antara on Thursday.

The peak of celebrations for the anniversary will be held at the Indonesia-in-Miniature Park (TMII) on Jan. 20 in the presence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Dino said.

Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko would represent Japanese Emperor Akihito.

Akishino, the second son of Akihito, was married to Princess Kiko in 1990.

To honor their 50th anniversary of bilateral relations, the two governments would hold a number joint activities in the economic, social, cultural and sports fields, Dino said.

Besides attending the peak event, the Japanese prince and princess are also scheduled to visit Prambanan and Borobudur temples in Central Java, Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

Market launched to improve farmers' lives

JAKARTA (Jakarta Post): Don't know where to go on weekends other than the shopping malls?

You can perhaps pay a visit to Indonesia's first-of-its-kind farmer market, officially launched here Saturday by the Agriculture Ministry and due to run every weekend afterwards.

Located at the clean, neat National Monument (Monas)'s IRTI parking area on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan, Central Jakarta, the market offers various kinds of farming products: fruits and vegetables, processed products, and ornamental plants.

And they are all fresh bought and sold by the traders themselves.

These farmers come from areas in Jakarta and the neighboring Banten and West Java provinces.

"We wish to bring the farmers to meet face-to-face with customers, so that they can earn more from their farming products," said Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyono at the launch.

He said that farmers had all these times been a marginalized group, as they could only earn a little from their farming products that were usually traded to customers via middlemen, who took the most benefit from the mediated trading system.

"Based on a research, farmers can earn an added value up to 23 percent of overall agribusiness activities with the direct marketing system," added Anton, taking as example the success of farmer markets in Malaysia, Britain and some other countries.

At the same occasion, the Agriculture Ministry's director general for processing and marketing of agricultural products, Djoko Said Damardjati, said that Jakarta was the first province in Indonesia organizing such a market.

"We'll have this farmer market in two or three provinces in total by the end of the year," said Djoko, adding that the other provinces might include Yogyakarta, Bandung in West Java, or Semarang in Central Java.

According to Djoko, the ministry has set aside a fund of around Rp 400 million (approximately US$43,716) for the program this year.

Overall, a total of 34 cities and municipalities in 17 provinces of Indonesia will host the farmer markets in the next few years.

The ministry will provide all farmer participants with kiosks for free.

Govt has five commitments to help MSMEs

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia's Cooperatives, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Minister Suryadharma Ali said there were five government commitments in helping micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs).

Among them were the empowerment of Business Development Service Providers (BDS-P), funding, creation of job opportunities and empowerment of civitas academic cooperatives as well as harmonization in understanding MSMEs through the law.

Speaking at a journalists orientation forum here on Thursday, the minister stressed that the first government commitment had to do with efforts to empower business development service providers (BDSP).

This institution played a key role in providing consultation services to MSME centers in Indonesia in addition to giving non financial assistance to MSMEs in developing the potential of their businesses. Besides, this institution was also attempting to bridge productive sources like information on capital, markets, technology and human resources.

Data from the Cooperatives, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Ministry indicated that the empowerment of BDSP had already been developed since 2001.

At present there are about 957 BDSPs, most of which are scattered in 33 provinces and 339 districts/cities.

The second government commitment was linked particularly to funding sector. Talking about funding, many MSMEs were unbankable even though their business prospects were good. They often ran into difficulties in their efforts to obtain working capital.

MSMEs had such assets as plots of land or business buildings. Unfortunately their ownership right could not be made as a collateral in getting credit from banks.

Hence, the ministry had cooperated with the National Land Agency (BPN for many years to make certification program over their right, Suryadharma said adding that it was a chance for MSMEs to solve their funding problems.

"The funding aspect for MSMEs is one of the realizations of the government`s policy package in the real sector," he said adding that improving the aspect of funding, the government will take two steps, namely developing micro financial institutions and credit quaranty program for MSMEs.

Suryadharma also reiterated the third commitment which had to do with the efforts to create job opportunity through university graduates` self employment program (Prospek Mandiri).

This program is directly oriented to business by creating new business opportunities and not to create new job seekers.

In 2006, university graduates` self-employment and job-opportunity creation program was more focused on six provinces, namely East Java, Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan, Maluku, West Nusa Tenggara and Riau islands.

According to a plan, at least 925 university graduates who had set up around 37 cooperatives were reported to be members of the program.

In addition, the cooperatives, small and medium entrepreneurs ministry also had the fourth commitment for the employment of civitas academic cooperatives (Kocika).

The government had allocated a budget of about Rp5 billion for strengthening their capital in the form of revolving funds in 10 Kocika cooperatives in ten higher learning institutions.

Furthermore, the minister said the budget for Kocika program would rise to Rp13 billion in 2008.

The fifth comitment, he added, had to do with harmonization of MSMEs understanding under the law which until now is still under discussion at the House of Representatives.

Under the law, there will be a legal umbrella for the cooperatives, small and medium entrepreneurs ministry to execute their task in helping MSMEs in the country.

UGM starts CIO postgraduate program

The Jakarta Post

Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta started its Chief Information Officer postgraduate program this year with an inaugural lecture on June 4.

The program offers classes and training to improve the competency of people working in the communications and information field.

This program is designed by UGM's information technology postgraduate program (MTI). Each student will follow classes for 16 months focusing on strategy and management of information technology.

The school perceives communication and information technology as the application of technology with a sociocultural approach. Consequently, students will also take nontechnical subjects such as law, economics and management.

West Sumba teacher takes home Kalpataru award

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Like Sysiphus of Greek mythology, who relentlessly carries a rock uphill, West Sumba native Elan Wukak Victor has for years carried out a similarly endless task, growing trees on rocks.

The 63-year-old English teacher started by encouraging his pupils to grow trees in their schoolyard, an idea he took from school to school.

And after 30 years, Elan has planted 400,000 trees, distributed 100,000 seeds to 23 green community groups he helped set up as well as built 81 water reservoirs across Waikabubak, a barren, hilly village in West Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara.

Elan's hard work paid off on Wednesday, when he, along with 11 other environmental activists, was awarded a Kalpataru, the highest award for environmentalists in Indonesia.

Elan won in environmental conservation pioneer category, together with Amandus Kaize from Merauke, Papua, and village head Slamet Tugiyanto from Magelang, Central Java.

Kaize was honored for his efforts to grow a rare variety of plants in a protected forest controlled by his tribal community, while Slamet won for promoting multiple crops among local farmers.

One notable figure who also won the award was former West Java governor Solichin Gautama Purwanegara, for his campaign against illegal logging and on the regreening of community-controlled forests in nine regencies in West Java.

Apart from the Kalpataru awards given to environmental activists, the government has handed out Adipura awards to cities that strive to promote cleanliness.

This year, the government gave the awards to 84 cities throughout the country. More than 300 cities were nominated for the Adipura awards this year.

All five municipalities in Jakarta won Kalpatarus in the category of metropolitan city. Other cities in the category which won Kalpataru are Palembang in South Sumatra and Surabaya in East Java.

Jakarta's gain, however, was at the loss of other cities in the greater Jakarta area such as Bekasi, Bogor and Tangerang. None of these cities won Adipura in this year's contest.

Other cities which also won Adipura include Padang (West Sumatra), Yogyakarta, Denpasar (Bali), Malang (East Java) and Pekanbaru (Riau).

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his speech before presenting the two awards that the Indonesian people did not have to wait for people in other countries to save the environment.

"Let us save the earth together with other people in this world," Yudhoyono said.

The President also called on local governments to take environmental protection into account when making policy.

He also reiterated his statement about the need to prepare for global warming's fallout.

Yudhoyono said that global warming would have a disastrous impact on Indonesia as an archipelagic country, as the rising of sea levels would drown many of the country's small islands.

"The time is high for us to find a breakthrough and brace for global warming," he said.

Indonesia has over 18 million micro-business

Manado, North Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has 18,933,701 micro businesses accounting for 83.2 percent of the total number of enterprises which was recorded at 27,737,314, an economic census conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) in 2006 showed.

The number of small-scale businesses was 3,594,254 or 15.8 percent, medium-scale businesses 152,789 or 0.7 percent, large businesses 44,038 or 0.2 percent and unclassified businesses 2,532 or 0.1 percent, Nursinah Amal Urai, a BPS director, told a seminar on the economic census 2006 here Friday.

The census also showed 10,297,908 or 46.3 percent of the total number of enterprises were engaged in wholesale and retail trading, 3,220,156 or 14.2 percent in processing industries, 3,015,208 or 13.3 percent in transportation and warehouse services and 2,702,574 or 13.3 percent in the communication sector.

Quoting the data, Nursinah said the business sector in Java accounted for 60.13 percent of national economic activities.

Three provinces which made the largest contributions to the national economy were Jakarta (17.48 percent), East Java (15.18 percent) and West Java (14.55 percent).

Other provinces whose contribution to the national economy reached more than 1 percent were Central Java (8.47 percent), Banten (3.44 percent) and Yogyakarta (1 percent).

The significant contribution from provinces in Java to the national economy could not be separated from the processing industries whose percentage stood at 80.

The data also showed the contribution of Java to the national economy had continued to grow in the past five years, Nursinah said.

Java`s contribution to the national economy was recorded at an average of 59.32 percent in 2000-2005 and it increased to 60.13 percent in late 2005.

Banks to help debtors affected by floods

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Banks will help debtors affected by recent floods in Jakarta that have paralyzed production in some industries.

"We have already coordinated with Bank Indonesia (the central bank) about it. In principle we all will help them," the general chairman of the National Banking Association (Perbanas), Sigit Pramono, said here on Sunday.

He said that he had already written to Perbanas members to make an inventory of, verify and identify the debtors` problems to determine the form of assistance for them.

"We hope we could report the result of the inventory to Bank Indonesia within a week for the bank to decide the assistance," he said.

He said the assistance could be extension of grace period or an interest cut or even writing off of interest.

"We still need some time to determine the form of assistance," he said, adding that debtors now were still unable to tell how much they had lost," he said.

He said the national banks had actually had an experience in such a case namely when they helped debtors in disaster-hit Aceh and Yogyakarta so the pattern for it was actually already available.

Bank Indonesia spokesman Budi Mulya said based on central bank regulations debtors in regions hit by disasters were entitled to getting special treatment and therefore they would receive relief assistance.

Lion Air to purchase 60 Boeing 737-900 jetliners from US

Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia's Airline Company Lion Air would purchase 60 Boeing 737-900 jetliners worth about US$3 billion directly from the United States, Lion Air Spokesman Hasyim Arsal Alhabsi said here on Monday.

The new airplanes which are expected to arrive in Indonesia in April will be used to serve several routes in Indonesia, according to Alhabsi when presenting books donation to the victims of earthquake here.

He said that the first route the new jetliners would serve was Jakarta-Yogyakarta because the number of passengers using this route kept on increasing.

"Sometime in the past, the number of passengers was only about 300 to 400 but now it has reached thousands," he added.

He hoped that with the operations of the new planes, flight frequencies from Yogyakarta would also increase from the present six flights to 12-15 flights.

"We also plan to increase the flight routes from Yoyakarta to Malaysia and Singapore," Alhabsi added.

He said that Lion Air would probably lower the price of its fare by about 20 to 25 percent when the new planes began operations.

"These planes have high transportation capacity with efficient fuel consumption," he said.

As an example, he said, a ticket price of Rp200 thousand could be lowered to Rp100 or to Rp150 thousands.

Germany swaps $24m debt for education in Yogyakarta

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The German government has provided a 20-million-euro (US$24-million) debt swap to Indonesia to support the rehabilitation of schools in Yogyakarta and Central Java that were devastated by an earthquake earlier this year.

Germany has also provided another 6 million euros in additional grants, bringing the total amount of money involved to 26 million euros, for post-tsunami housing reconstruction in Aceh and Nias.

The agreement on the debt swap and grant was signed Monday between the Finance Ministry's director general for debt management, Rahmat Waluyanto, and German Development Bank (KfW) vice president for Asia Pacific, Hans-Peter Mssig.

The debt swap is the fourth and last tranche of earlier schemes that Germany provided to Indonesia, worth some 93.6 million euros so far.

In 2004, Germany provided 25 million euro in a debt swap for nature scheme to enhance the environmental awareness of SMEs and the protection of natural parks, following a debt swap worth 23 million euros earlier the same year for improving junior high school education in eastern Indonesia, and 25.6 million euros in 2002 for elementary education.

Under the latest debt swap scheme, Germany will cancel up to 20 million euros of debt after Indonesia sets aside half of the amount for rebuilding 213 primary and junior high schools in Yogyakarta and Central Java.

Indonesia's total debt to Germany stands at some 1.1 billion euros. Current project loans include 443.5 million euros for transportation, health, education, the environment and telecommunications.

Germany's grants for the post-tsunami reconstruction work in Aceh and Nias, meanwhile, totaled 250 million euros.

Rahmat welcomed the debt swap schemes, saying they were a mutually beneficial solution to the debt problem. The government will remain prudent in managing the country's debt, he said, and will only accept other debt swap schemes whose terms and conditions are feasible.

Mssig said that although the latest debt swap scheme was the last in the series, Germany might consider future ones following an assessment of their benefits to the welfare-improvement effort in Indonesia.

Other creditor countries have also been considering debt swap schemes for Indonesia, although no progress on these has been made to date.

Dutch foreign minister visits Indonesia

ANTARA News - 2006-12-18 10:20:58

Jakarta, December 16, 2006 (ANTARA News) - Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Bot is scheduled to visit Indonesia from December 16 to 19, 2006 to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, media reports said here on Saturday.

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda was expected to receive his Dutch counterpart in Bali where the Dutch minister would lay a wreath at the memorial for the more than 200 victims of the bomb attack in 2002. Four Dutch nationals were killed in the bombing.

From Bali, Minister Bot would visit Yogyakarta accompanied by Minister Hassan Wirajuda. They would sign a letter of intent in Yogyakarta on Monday. Bot is expected to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday (Dec.19).

Bot`s visit would be an informal one at the invitation of Hassan Wirajuda, who made a two-day visit in the Netherlands in August 2006. Bot visited Jakarta to attend Indonesia`s Independence Day celebration in August 2005.

The Netherlands colonized Indonesia for about 250 years until 1945 when Indonesia declared its Independence on August 17, 1945.

The Netherlands Education Center (NEC) had intensified the promotion of education cooperation with Indonesia by offering scholarships to Indonesian students and holding Holland Education fairs in Surabaya (East Java), Bandung (West Java), Yogyakarta, and Jakarta.

Yogyakarta deputy governor receives Belgian envoy

ANTARA News - 2006-12-11 17:41

Yogyakarta, December 11, 200 (ANTARA News) - Yogyakarta Deputy Governor Sri Paku Alam IX received Beligian Ambassador to Indonesia Marc Trsnpeseau at the former`s office here on Monday.

On the occasion, the Belgian envoy expressed hope that the people of Yogyakarta would be able to lead a normal life after a powerful earthquake rocked the province last May.

Marc Trsnpeseau said the tourism sector which was one of the province`s foreign exchange earners was expected to perk up and attract more tourist arrivals.

"If the tourism sector is improving, the local people will be able to lead a better life as it was," he said.

He added that his government wished to explore the possibility of cooperation with Yogyakarta in the fields of tourism and education.

The cooperation in the fields of tourism and education would in the end strengthen the relations between Belgium and Indonesia, he said.

Meanwhile, Sri Paku Alam IX said he positively welcome the idea of such cooperation.

"I hope the Belgian ambassador will also promote Yogyakarta as a safe tourist distination," Paku Alam said.

Forum encourages youth entrepreneurship

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Young people from 35 countries have gathered in Yogyakarta to explore ways to promote youth entrepreneurship.

The three-day Global Youth Entrepreneurship Forum was officially opened Thursday by Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X.

Also scheduled to appear at the forum are Indonesian State Minister for Youth and Sports Affairs Adyaksa Dault, Malaysian Minister for Youth Affairs Datuk Azalina Othman Said and Namibian Deputy Minister for Youth Affairs Pohamba Shifeta.

Some 200 young people have come from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Europe to attend the forum, which is being organized by the World Assembly of Youth (WAY), an international coordinating body of national youth councils and organizations that has 115 member organizations from all continents.

Speaking at a joint press conference here Wednesday, WAY president Mohd. Ali bin Mohd Rustam said the forum in Yogyakarta was the first such event held by the organization since it was established in London in 1949.

The assembly says in the future it plans to make the forum a periodic event, to provide a platform for young entrepreneurs, NGO workers, youth activists and others to promote youth entrepreneurship as a means of viable youth employment creation.

"This year we are concentrating on matters concerning ICT (information and communication technology) and small business development," said Rustam, who is also chief minister of the Malaysian state of Melaka.

He said the forum was focusing on job creation because there were more than 60 million young people worldwide currently looking for jobs.

"And this increases about 50 percent every year," said Rustam, underlining the importance of such conferences in helping young people develop their entrepreneurial skills and become job creators rather than job seekers.

It is also for this reason that educators, businesspeople and NGO activists, especially from youth organizations, have been invited to the forum to share their experiences.

Organizers hope the forum will help young people make use of ICT to develop small businesses efficiently and effectively, which in turn will help reduce the global youth unemployment rate.

The International Labor Organization has reported that of the 60 million unemployed young job seekers worldwide, 80 percent are in developing countries.

Forum organizing committee chairwoman GKR Pembayun said it hoped a one-day seminar and two-day workshop held during the forum would give young people the tools to start businesses in their hometowns, rather than migrating to large cities in search of work.