By Abu Hanifah
JAKARTA, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) – Indonesian government assured that the massive labor rallies in industrial area of Bekasi and Cikarang, West Java recently will not hinder the willingness of investors from placing their investments in Indonesia.
Series of massive rallies were staged by thousands of labors working in several plants locating in the industrial compound.
The protesting labors blocked the toll road for several hours, made the traffic jammed down to the capital city for several hours, cost the operation of manufactures operating in Java for their logistic transports that were disrupted by the protesters.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Radjasa said that investors intending to invest in Indonesia would get a commitment from the government that such a situation would not be happening again in the future.
“That commitment was very good. We have to preserve our competitiveness. We will not see them taking such a way in the future, never,” Hatta said in his office responding the massive rallies.
Thousands of workers staged their protests in the toll road, demanding salary raise. Their massive protests, that conducted at least twice this week by blocking the toll road, were prompted by the court ruling won the Bekasi branch employer association ( Apindo), obliges West Java governor to revise the minimum regional wage salary in the province.
Their protests were eased after representatives from government, employers and workers union agreed on Friday the option to raise the workers’ salary up to 1,849,000 rupiah per month.
Indonesia is now expecting the flooding in of foreign investors following the investment grade rating awarded by international rating agencies recently.
The largest economy in Southeast Asia region has demonstrated excellent economic parameters in the last few years.
Indonesia provides huge market as the country with 240 million population continues to reach positive growth amid the financial crisis in global market at the moment.
Indonesia is projected as the next emerging market for its continuous positive growth. It saw a 6.5 percent growth last year and is expected to reach 6.7 percent this year, projected to reach 7 percent next year.
Indonesia is now intensifying infrastructure construction projects across the country to facilitate investors. Besides that, government also provides tax incentive schemes, easy business opening administration service for the investors.