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Your letters: Electronics industry in Batam
I refer to an article titled âElectronics industry may soon abandon Batam,â (The Jakarta Post, July 22)
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I
refer to an article titled 'Electronics industry may soon abandon Batam,' (The Jakarta Post, July 22).
Since its inception in 1994, the electronics industry in Batam has heavily relied on manual labor. Sadly, these electronics companies are slowly and surely being pushed out of the Batam free trade zone (FTZ) by increasing wages, cost of production and materials, cost of living and cost of government taxes, levies, utilities, energy, fuel, vehicle taxes, ferry charges, telecommunication, housing rentals, etc.
These companies appear to feel the 'heat' and will leave when they find cheaper locations, such as Vietnam or Myanmar. Don't forget they also had their fair share of 'lights out' recently.
In general, they cited that these increases popped up throughout the year and one recent example was a planned protest (albeit aborted) that took place on March 2 by workers of the Indonesia Metal Workers Federation (FSPMI) in front of PT PLN headquarters demanding that the company cancel the planned 17.19 percent price increase.
Their reason was that their salaries (after the recent adjustments per the minimum wage policy) could cover the cost of basic necessities, but any sudden increases in utilities would affect their jobs and livelihoods. See the Post's 'Batam workers rally over tariff hike plan' published March 4.
Sad but true, yet, no minister offered any comment on this case. Do they care anymore?
If nothing positive is done, more electronics companies will certainly move out of Batam.
In fact, this kind of departure was envisaged by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (Kadin) Riau Islands chairman Johannes Kennedy Aritonang, who said: 'Implementation of the FTZ has not had a positive effect. After the FTZ was implemented, the number of companies abandoning Batam has been higher than those coming to the island to invest. This shows that the concept has yet to be implemented with a shared vision between relevant ministries. This has had a bad effect on the region,' Johannes said.
What is going to happen?
Is the central government waiting for the ASEAN Economic Community to be implemented before telling the Batam administration what to do?
Luwanto
Jakarta
