JAKARTA (ILO News): Increasing liberalization of trade and the planned formation of the ASEAN economic community will bring opportunities and challenges to Indonesian businesses. Though exports and imports of goods and services recorded a two-digit decline in 2009 (exports decreased by 11.4 per cent and imports by 19.5 per cent on the year-to-year basis), international trade is back on a steady expansion path from 2010 in Indonesia.

This trend will, of course, have an impact on employment and working conditions in Indonesia. Many formal jobs will be created in the export sectors, while some jobs may be lost in sectors that are not competitive. Thus, an adequate awareness and understanding of these effects are essential to formulate effective national employment strategy in today’s globalizing world.

As part of an effort to assist and address the effect of trades on employment, the International Labour Organization (ILO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration and the ILO’s International Training Centre based in Turin, Italy, will conduct a national training on assessing the effects of trade on employment from 7 – 11 February at Sultan Hotel, Jakarta. The workshop is conducted by the ILO through its Project on the Effect of Trade on Employment (ETE), funded by the European Union.

The workshop will train participants on the application of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) and Multiplier Analysis as instruments to simulate potential impact of trades on the Indonesian economy. These instruments can help policy makers to further understand the interdependent linkages between different sectors and the institutional agents at work within the economy. It also allows the policy makers to understand the evolvement of economy and the relations of employment with international trade.

Mr Peter van Rooij, Country Director of ILO in Indonesia, said that trade liberalization is associated with both job creation and job destruction. Therefore, it is important to identify where employment creation opportunities exist, and where vulnerability rises.

“Thus, while developing skills for growing export sectors, it is vital that sound labour and social policies protect those who are adversely affected by trade liberalization. The SAM instrument can help future policy assessments and developments to understand better how different sectors of the economy interact with each other and to mitigate any negative effects of trade liberation and expanding employment,” he stated.

The workshop is specifically targeted to development practitioners, policy analysts, policy advisors and researchers.

For further information please contact:

Ms Diah Widarti
National Program Coordinator of ILO/EU’s ETE and MAP Project
Tel.: +6221 391 3112 ext. 129
Email

Gita Lingga
Media Relations Officer
Tel.: +6221 391 3112 ext. 115
Email