Smelters – employment for who?
Smelters – employment for who? [Posted 20 Sep 2015, 127 views, 18 likes, 2 comments]
The Jakarta Post (16 Sep) article on China investment in Indonesia states “It seems about 1,700 Chinese laborers and 700 engineers have been working on a number of construction sites, while some 26,000 Indonesian workers have recently been dismissed because of the economic downturn. This could be just the tip of the ice-burg.” This statement is of great concern given that :
- A) It is assumed a number of such Chinese laborers and engineers are constructing the nickel smelters in Sulawesi. Prof. Dr. Yusrilhza Mahendra, Expert witness supporting the government’s case to effectively retain the mineral export ban statement implies the effective raw export ban would create more jobs for Indonesians.
- B) The ensuing training and hand over manpower programs should be in clarified. During the start up of the modern mining era we saw many expats driving large excavators and trucks, along with the development of mining skill training programs that enabled the handing over of such jobs to Indonesians in a timely manner. During the construction of the Tanjung Enim mine mouth power station in the mid 1980’s we saw a hand full of French engineers supported by a few French cooks and school teachers in the remote construction camp. However in parallel to this construction phase there were a number of Indonesian engineers sent to France to learn how to run and maintain the power plant.
There could also be the situation that if such Chinese investment was not active, then unemployment in Indonesia, under an effective raw mineral export ban, could be even worse off.
For many in the exploration and mining industry a quarterly progress review of the smelter strategy by the government, industry professional associations or other NGO’s would be welcome. It would also be interesting to get some idea of those professionals who lost their jobs due to the stopping of raw mineral exports, or have gained employment due to the smelter program.