VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta.  Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Policy Agency Head, Febrio Nathan Kacaribu, highlighted the urgency to increase the number of new jobs starting this year by offering convenience and certainty in doing business through the Job Creation Law.

"We must be able to create new jobs starting this year. We should provide convenience and certainty to strive to increase (the number of new jobs) this year and beyond in the coming years," Kacaribu remarked during the webinar on Indonesia Macroeconomic Update 2021 in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to Kacaribu, new job opportunities should arise on account of the fact that the Job Creation Law was drafted to simplify regulations and permits and concurrently improve the investment climate in Indonesia.

"The government has implemented laws and regulations, and we are applying it starting this year. Hence, we are optimistic that positive results would begin to appear this year," he remarked.

Kacaribu expounded that new jobs would be created since the Job Creation Law offers facilities to MSMEs in the form of legal assistance and protection, financing and fiscal incentives, as well as a single permit through a Business Identification Number (NIB), among other factors.

The Job Creation Law additionally enables the use of special allocation funds (DAK) for the development of MSMEs, thereby making it easy to form cooperatives and prioritizes UMKM products for government procurement.

Meanwhile, the Job Creation Law simplifies the licensing process for businesses by eliminating the initial capital provisions for a limited company (PT) as well as streamlines the process and reduces the cost of establishing PT.

Furthermore, village-owned businesses (BUMDes) take the form of a legal entity, expedite the patent application process, simplify and accelerate the trademark application process, as well as remove overlapping permits.

"We will monitor this very closely in 2021 and beyond for positive results from the real sector reforms that we have conducted," he stated.

Chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) Hariyadi Sukamdani remarked that the Job Creation Law aimed at encouraging the creation of an employment ecosystem that accommodates current and future requirements.

Sukamdani noted that the trend of incoming investment had begun to show a correlation with the quality of employment, particularly if investment is encouraged for labor-intensive sectors.

"We harbor a sense of optimism regarding 2021, as the trend of incoming investment has begun to show a correlation with the quality of employment," he stated. (Antaranews)