REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia Jusuf Kalla received a courtesy call of China's Deputy Prime Minister Liu Yandong. In the meeting, Jusuf Kalla briefly mentioned the number of foreign workers from China who entered Indonesia.
"I said, your investment (China) is good, just don't bring too many workers," said Jusuf Kalla in a press conference at the Vice President's Palace on Monday November 27).
Learning from previous experience, the Vice President requested Chinese companies to be able to train Indonesian workers first before investing.
The training could be conducted in Indonesia or China. The request was approved by Deputy Prime Minister Liu.
"Now if there is an investment from China, they bring thousands of workers. I said don't. Trained (Indonesian workers) first, trained them in China or in Indonesia, and she agreed to use those stages," said Kalla.
Kalla said, Indonesia and China have a mutual benefit relationship. China needed a large market, and Indonesia has it.
In addition, relationship between people to people and investment in a number of areas are needed.
During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Liu explained the results of the Chinese Communist Party congress which has targeted to make China a very strong country by 2020, 2035, and 2050. It means China wanted to exceed or equal the United States.
Chinese labor allegedly have entered Indonesia in a very large number.
At the end of 2016, President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo denied the news. He said that Chinese nationals labor who entered into Indonesia did not reached tens of millions. It was about 21 thousand people, he said.
According to him the number was very small compared to the number of Indonesian workers in other countries.
In Malaysia, for example, Indonesian migrant workers reached 2 million people. As in Hong Kong reached 153 thousand people. (Idealisa Masyrafina)