JAKARTA. Center for Engineering and Industrial Policy Studies of Indonesian Engineers Association (PII) head Heru Dewanto said Tuesday that Indonesia was facing an “engineer shortage” in meeting its Accelerating and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI) target.

“We are short of 30,000 new engineers every year to help build infrastructure across the archipelago. The growth [of engineer shortage] is incremental,” Heru said, speaking to reporters to during a briefing on the 31st Conference of ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organization 2013 that will commence on Wednesday in Jakarta.

According to the association data, Indonesia currently has 2,671 engineers per one million of its population. In comparison, India and China have 3,380 and 5,530 engineers per one million people, respectively, while South Korea has 25,000 engineers per one million. Neighboring Malaysia and Thailand have 3,334 and 4,421 engineers per one million people each.

Heru said that the country would likely rely on an influx of foreign engineers from neighboring countries with the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community, which will open up the opportunity for the exchange of workers in the region.

He, however, said that standards and a certification scheme were needed to ensure that only quality engineers were accepted to work on the country’s major projects.

Heru said that a law stipulating standards for engineers was being formulated in the House of Representatives, expected to conclude by next year. (The Jakarta Post)

Editor: Asnil Amri