NON TARIFF TRADE BARRIERS ‘MISGUIDED’

Irvan Trisnabudi
Jakarta Globe Monday, februari 22,2010


Analysts and bussiness leaders have criticized the goverment’s attempt to limit the impact of the Asean-china Free Trade Agreement by imposing non-tariff barriers, claiming this approach will be in effective and costly.
The goverment has said it will protect the domestic market from a likely flood of cheap chinese goods by strengthening national quality standars on imported products and requiring imports of certain goods to be shipped trought five designated ports.
But while the trade and industry ministries are appealing for more money to support thesenon tariff barriers, business leaders believe the goverment should focus on helping domestic industry rather than restricting foreign competitors.
“I think it’s better for the goverment to pay more attention to thigs that are keeping our businessess from getting more competitive, such as relatively high interest rate,” said Djiman to secretary general of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).
Ernovian Ismy, secretary general of the Indonesian Textile Association (API), echoed this. “The budget for monitoring the flow of illegal imports allowcated to the Trade Ministry should not be increased because if imports are only allowed in specific entry points, it already decreases monitoring costs. More budget should be allocated for lowering lending interest rates,” Ernovian said.
Juniman an economist at PT Bank International Indonesia argued that without better financing, the non-tariff barriers would not be efective. He sugessted the money would be better spent supporting domestic industry in more direct ways.
“We wouldn’t need these non-tariff barriers if our industries could compete with china’s,” he said. “I doubt the two non-tariff bariers schemes could perform up to their maximum potencial, because it’s hard for the goverment to be able to completely fulfill the additional budget and facilities demanded by both ministries”.
To meet intenational guidelines on product quality, the goverment has been enforcing the Indonesian National Standars (SNI) certification process on certain finished-good imports since 2001.
At the end of last year, it added a number of new products including mineral water, tires, helmet, gas-tank regulators and safety equipment to the list of those that must meet the standars.
The goverment also plans to enforce the rules more stringently to ensure that lower-quality imports are kept out. But according to Agus Tjahyana the Ministry of industry’s secretary general, the goverment needs more invesment from the private sector and help from universities that process laboratory testing facilities if it’s to be able to enforce the standars.
Agus said the current total of 500 labs was insufficient to conduct the requaired testing on more than 2000 different product standars. “for example, to take care of the SNI for all imported helnets coming to Indonesia, we only have one laboratory, located in Bandung,” Agus said.
“We would need at least five more to keep up with the millions and millions of helmets flowing into our country.” Djimanto also said the existing infrastucture was inadequate to ensure that the standars are properly enforced.
“We still see many products in retail markets that fail to meet the required SNI,” hesaid. Subagyo the Trade Ministry’s director general for domestic trade said the Rp 15billion annual budgets for monitoring illegal imports was insufficient. He called for the goverment to double it at the last.

VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS URGED TO FOCUS ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Ulma Haryanto
Jakart Globe, Wednesday februari 24 2010

Certification for skills and competency was not enough for vocational high schools, a goverment official said on Tuesday adding that entrepreneurship was also needed to cut the country’s steep unemployment rate.
“Getting certification does not mean that they are guaranted a job. What we would like to push here is the entrepreneurial skills of our graduates so that they can depend on themselves to create jobs,” said joko sutrisno, director of vocational schools at the Ministry of National Education.
“Certification are just a way to identify a skill. To increase employment opportunity, the economy has to be stimulated by creating more businesse. That is why entrepreneurial skills are very important.”
According to ministry data 25 million high school and vocational school graduates were unemployed in 2009 compared with 3.8 million with bachelor’s degrees and three million holding university diplomas.
Deputy education minister Fasli Jalal has said the ministry, to gether with the ministry of manpower and transmigration, would tell employers to start outlining the certified skills needed to quality for jobs.
Taufik Yudi Mulyanto, head of the jakarta education agency, said vocational schools played a strategic role in a city, “where there are a alot of job opportunities that can be created and a lot of manpower available.”
He also said trade schools should apply for international certification so their students would be qualified to work anywhere in the world.
But Joko dismissed more certification as “an easy answer,” and said it was important for graduates to be able to create their own job opportunities so did not “just graduate with a certificate but can’t find work anywhere.”
Over the past two years, vocational schools have been including industry-specific skills to boost students abilities to start their businesses in various fields such as computing, automotive, construction, hospitality and in the creative arts.
Trade schools Joko said were also encouraged to work with industry partners and invite experts from the field to assist instuctors. Noor fuadiyah zuhaedah from prestasi junior indonesia, an entrepreneurial education institution assisting vocational schools said to increase business acumen students were encouraged to under take extracurricular activities such as assisting at school can teens or launching recycling or small accessories bisinesses.