I

ndonesia needs to produce more certified civil engineers not only to ensure the completion of its ambitious infrastructure projects but also to boost its competitiveness against other Southeast Asian countries, an infrastructure expert has said.

While the country plans to build its infrastructure aggressively over the next several years, it currently has no reliable system to create professional or chartered civil engineers, infrastructure consulting firm PT Glendale Partners president commissioner Scott Younger said.

'€œWe don'€™t have the structure properly set up here in Indonesia ['€¦], and we need it if we'€™re going to be equal to Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore,'€ he recently said.

He argued that there was not simply a problem with the quantity of Indonesia'€™s civil engineers but also quality. The supply of civil engineers currently amounts to 37,000 a year, well below total annual demand during the 2010-2015 period that averaged 57,000.

In 2013 alone, the number of civil engineers in the country stood at 600,000, with only around 8,000 people certified, according to data from the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry.

From 2015 to 2020, during which the government is set to carry out its ambitious infrastructure plans, including the 35,000-megawatt (MW) power-generation and maritime-highway projects, demand for civil engineers will be even greater.

Civil engineering is one of the professions included in the ASEAN mutual recognition agreement (MRA), along with other professions such as architecture, tourism, accountancy, dentistry, medicine, nursing and surveying.

Under the MRA, professionals with listed professions should be recognized or treated equally to their ASEAN peers with the relevant certification.

For the engineering professions, the MRA includes the ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer (ACPE) certificate and ASEAN Architecture (AA) certificate.

In an attempt to support Indonesia in developing a more structured and globally recognized certification for civil engineers, the British government and London-based Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) are jointly running a pilot project with the target of 25 Indonesian civil engineers obtaining ICE certification this year.

A similar project was initially carried out in Jakarta in 1993, but it halted in 1997-1998 due to the Asian financial crisis.

The project will target civil engineers with five to 20 years of experience. Both the British government, through the British Embassy, and the ICE will also partner with the country'€™s prestigious universities to improve the academic teaching standards of engineering.

Chosen fields in civil engineering include, but are not limited to, structural, water, airport, telecommunications, power and highway engineering.

Younger stressed that ICE certification would be accepted in any other country as it was arguably the most prestigious certification worldwide.

British Embassy prosperity fund manager Nofa Farida Lestari said there was the possibility that the British government would continue funding the project in the coming years if the pilot project ran successfully.

In an attempt to boost economic growth and infrastructure development, the government is planning to complete 30 priority infrastructure projects across the country within the next four years.

The prioritized projects, which are expected to be completed in the 2015-2019 period, will need a total investment of more than Rp 800 trillion (US$60 billion), according to calculations given by the government-sanctioned Committee of Infrastructure Priorities Development Acceleration (KPPIP).

The Public Works and Housing Ministry and the Culture and Education Ministry have also recently initiated cooperation that will allow vocational high schools across the archipelago to certify construction workers.

The cooperation is expected to produce at least 750,000 certified construction workers by 2019.

'€”JP/Khoirul Amin