- Indonesia plans to supply Croatia with caregivers and construction workers as part of its expanding overseas labor program.
- The government has allocated Rp 8 trillion ($479 million) to train 500,000 hospitality workers and welders, including language and skill development.
- Officials emphasized the need to overcome language barriers to enhance Indonesian workers’ welfare while tapping into growing global demand for skilled labor in Europe and beyond.
Indonesia recently announced that it would supply Croatia with some caregivers and construction workers, shortly after the Southeast Asian economy said it would set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to train its people before they work overseas. A few weeks ago, President Prabowo Subianto signaled that countries were keen on hiring Indonesian workers.
It did not take long for economic tsar Airlangga Hartarto to disclose that the government had set aside around Rp 8 trillion ($479 million) in state budget to send 500,000 hospitality workers and welders overseas. Croatia quickly expressed interest in recruiting Indonesian hires, Foreign Minister Sugiono said on Monday. Sugiono had just hosted his Croatian counterpart, Gordan Grlic-Radman, in Jakarta that day.
“Europe, especially the Balkans, needs workers in the construction and hospitality sectors as well as caregivers. I think they prefer Indonesians because we share so many similarities, culture-wise. Our workers have a great sense of responsibility”, Sugiono told reporters. “But the language barrier remains a major obstacle. That’s why we are pursuing a comprehensive approach when sending our workers. To this end, we want to equip them with the needed skills, including teaching foreign languages so our people can improve their welfare”.
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Sugiono admitted that they had yet to decide how many Indonesian workers would go to Zagreb, alluding that the talks were still at a nascent stage. Indonesia first announced its ambitious migrant worker plan when Prabowo gathered his ministers on Oct. 20. Like Sugiono, Prabowo felt the growing need to break the language barriers as Jakarta sought to tap into the opportunity from the global labor shortages.
"Filipinos are working everywhere because they can speak English. Europe has even requested us to send 1 million people to work at their hotels and restaurants each year, and many of their heads of state have personally asked me. Their people do not want to work as waiters. Perhaps we need to teach our workers English or maybe Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or even Korean", Prabowo said at the time. Government data showed that Indonesia had deployed 196,355 migrant workers so far this year up to September, most of whom had gone to Malaysia and Taiwan. About 53,141 individuals are housemaids.
