Indonesia Tourism Rank Rose Up to 74

Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy revealed that Indonesia's tourism competitiveness ranking rose up to 74th rank in 2011 from the previous ranking of 81st in 2009 among 139 countries.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menteri Pariwisata dan Ekonomi Kreatif - Menparekraf), Mari Elka Pangestu said that it's a good indication for the development of Indonesia's tourism sector.

Indonesian tourism

Even so, she realizes that Indonesia rank is still far below other ASEAN countries such as Singapore (16th rank), Malaysia (32nd rank), and Thailand (42nd rank).

"So the government policies to accelerate the development of national tourism are still needed," she said.

According to her, the lack of competitiveness in Indonesia is caused by the limited number, variety and quality of human resources in tourism sector. As well as the capacity and quality of research and development in tourism sector not yet optimized.

"Although the national tourism has shown good progress, but there are still some problems," she said.

She noted one of the obstacles is that the tourist destinations in Indonesia are not yet fully ready to compete in the global market.

It is because of the management of the tourist destination hasn’t met the standard of assessment, the utilization of data bases not yet optimized, and the orientation in sustainable tourism development needs to be improved.

In addition, inadequate facilities and infrastructure to support tourism such as transportation sector, either by land, sea, or air, hence there is still lack of public facilities availability.

She also realized that the partnership and cooperation in promoting the tourism among government, private sector, and community have not been optimized yet.

The government policy in boosting the tourism investment climate is not effective. The development of the tourism sector, especially in West and East Indonesia region, still needs to be improved.

The promotion and marketing of Indonesian tourism are also considered not effective due to inadequate tourism information within and outside the country, less optimal partnerships between stakeholders in the promotion and marketing business, and the utilization of mass media, electronic, printed media and ICT as promotional tools not yet optimized.

She also admitted that inadequate promotion of local and international tourism destinations as well as the limited support of local government in supporting regional tourism promotion.

In the future she hoped the tourism sector will be one of the largest contributors for the state income. In year 2010, Tourism sector contributed U.S. $ 7603.45 million or fourth rank in the foreign exchange income.

Source: Analisa

Indonesian Banks has 12% Credit Interest Rate, while Malaysia has only 6%

The inefficiency in Indonesia Banking has resulted in expensive operational costs and higher interest rates. Among ASEAN countries, Indonesia's banking loan interest is very high.

Banks in Indonesia

According to the data from Bank of Indonesia (BI) quoted by detikFinance, Saturday (17/12), the mortgage interest rate of Indonesia banks has an average of 12.4%. This is very high compared to the credit interest in Malaysia (6.54%).

Even Thailand, the Philippines, and Korea have very low interest rate credit banking, i.e. respectively 7.25%, 5.71% and 5.69%.

Bank Indonesia noted that the highest differences between the central bank's benchmark interest rate and the real mortgage interest rate happened in Indonesia. Banks in Indonesia have much profit from the large difference between savings interest rate with credit interest rate. The savings interest rate in Indonesia is 6.39%, while the credit interest rates reached 12.4%.

As of the Bank of Indonesia data, the banking industry in Indonesia is lavish and inefficient resulted in high-interest credit. The ratio of operating expenses compared to operating income is high at 86.44% in October, while the average in ASEAN banks is only 40-60%.

The banking industry in Indonesia is also still "lazy" to give credit and prefer to invest in securities as it is safer.

Data shown that the ratio of bank credit to GDP in Indonesia is still low (just 29.1%). While in Malaysia it reached 114.9%, 131.1% in China, 116.7% in Thailand, 102.1% in Singapore and 100.8% in Korea.

Source: Analisa

Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Will Not Send Any Workers to Malaysia Again

Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration will not send any workers or maids (Tenaga Kerja Indonesia-TKI) to Malaysia again post-moratorium on December 1, 2011.

"It is true, by December 1 the moratorium is already completed, but the recruitment just opened and will go through several processes," said Director General of Employment Development (Bina Penta), Dr. Reyna Usman, in Surabaya on Friday.

Accompanied by East Java Deputy Governor, H. Saifullah Yusuf, during the opening of the "Job Market Fair 2011" in Surabaya, he explained that the placement of migrant workers process will also be "joint task force" until March 2012.

TKI

"This Joint Task Force will receive a" job order" from the agency in Malaysia that is legalized by Indonesian Representative in Malaysia, then PPTKIS (Pelaksana Penempatan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia Swasta - private TKI executing placements) should obtain the Mobilization Permit (Surat Izin Pengerahan - SIP) from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration," he said.

After that, they will proceed the process of recruiting candidates for TKI (Calon Tenaga Kerja Indonesia - CTKI) with CTKI document preparation, then they do a physical check and training with 50 percent of the cost borne by PPTKIS.

"Training will also be conducted in collaboration of Joint Task Force with PPTKIS and the training will be held in the area of origin. We have about 50 areas of TKI with the highest number of migrant workers in West Java and East Java," he said.

Therefore, he said, the government will no longer send any domestic workers, but workers that are trained and competent as a "baby sitter", "house keeper", elderly nurses, carpenters, cooks, and so on.

Similarly, East Java Deputy Governor, H. Saifullah Yusuf also known as Gus Ipul said that the East Java provincial government will not send domestic workers, but workers who have specific competence in accordance to Malaysia’s request.

"So, we will not send migrants who have no skill at all, even we also propose to the central government  that the prospective workers are not charged at all," he said, accompanied by Head of East Java Disnakertransduk, Harry Soegiri.

In the opening of the "Job Market Fair 2011" (Employment Fair 2011) which was attended by 30 companies in Surabaya and surrounding that provided about 2,000 jobs, the Deputy Governor of East Java with the Director General of Manpower had a dialogue with job seekers informally.

Source: Analisa, Medan