T

he Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry is stepping up its efforts to increase the number of standardized workers in the tourist sector ahead of the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

Tourism Ministry spokesman Noviendi Makalam said that since 2010, the government had certified around 55,000 workers in the sector, including those employed by hospitality businesses, to improve their competitiveness against workers from other ASEAN countries.

'€œApproaching ASEAN connectivity in 2015, the tourist sector is fully ready with human resources, because most of our workforce has been standardized by a system approved by mutual agreement by all member countries for 32 tourism professions,'€ Noviendi told The Jakarta Post recently.

ASEAN member countries under the ASEAN Tourism Agreement (ATA) have agreed to better connect the countries by encouraging a more open market in terms of tourism human resources. Unless the government improves the quality of tourism workers, the country will be flooded with manpower from neighboring countries, Noviendi said.

He said the government would certify about 5,000 people working in the hospitality industry this year, which would enable them to work in the field of tourism in any member country.

'€œThis is one of our preparations approaching the ASEAN Economic Community, so that our workers are competitive and ready to work in or outside Indonesia, particularly in other ASEAN countries,'€ Noviendi said. He went on to say, however, that the program could be hampered if the plan to slash the ministry'€™s allocation in the state budget by Rp 458.3 billion (US$39.7 million) to Rp 1.24 trillion from the current Rp 1.7 trillion went ahead.

'€œWe hope that it won'€™t affect the certification process. I hope the industry will help us cover the gap by providing facilities for certification should the program be affected by the budget revision,'€ he said.

Separately, Anang Sutono, the director of Bandung'€™s School of Tourism, said that about 25 tourism schools in the country were ready to certify their graduates.

'€œWhen they graduate, they will obtain not only a diploma but also certification,'€ Anang said.

National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) transportation director Bambang Prihartono said, however, that of the 15 ASEAN connectivity projects prioritized, Indonesia was not ready to compete with other ASEAN countries in terms of foreign language skills.

'€œThailand has provided Indonesian language courses to its workers to cope with Indonesian visitors as well as to compete with Indonesian workers. We haven'€™t had that kind of preparation, but are in the process of rectifying that,'€ Bambang said recently.

Bambang also said that Indonesia should offer its workers the same remuneration to encourage them to remain working in the country, otherwise they would opt to work overseas.

According to data from the ASEAN secretariat, the number of foreign tourists visiting ASEAN countries reached 92.7 million in 2013, a 12 percent increase from 2012. The number of foreign tourists traveling to ASEAN is expected to reach 114.9 million by the end of 2015 and 172.5 million by 2018.

Indonesia has set a target of 9.5 million foreign arrivals this year, an increase from the 8.8 million tourists recorded last year.