Jakarta. Indonesia recently unveiled plans to supply Croatia with some caregivers and construction workers, not long after the Southeast Asian economy announced it would set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to train its people before they work abroad.

A few weeks ago, President Prabowo Subianto signaled that countries were keen on hiring Indonesian workers. It did not take long for economic tsar Airlangga Hartarto to reveal that the government had allotted around Rp 8 trillion ($479 million) in state budget to send 500,000 hospitality workers and welders overseas. Croatia quickly expressed interest in recruiting Indonesian hires, Foreign Minister Sugiono said on Monday. Sugiono had just hosted his Croatian counterpart, Gordan Grlić-Radman, in Jakarta that day.

“Europe, particularly the Balkans, needs workers in the construction and hospitality sectors, as well as caregivers. … I think they prefer Indonesians because we share many similarities, culture-wise. Our workers have a great sense of responsibility,” Sugiono told reporters.

“But the language barrier remains a major obstacle. That’s why we are pursuing a comprehensive approach when sending our workers. To this end, we wish to equip them with the needed skills, including teaching foreign languages … so our people can improve their welfare.”

Sugiono admitted that they had yet to decide on how many Indonesian workers would go to Zagreb, alluding that the talks were still at a nascent stage.

Indonesia first unveiled its massive migrant worker plan when Prabowo gathered his ministers on Oct. 20. Like Sugiono, Prabowo felt the growing need to break the language barriers as Jakarta sought to tap into the opportunity from the global labor shortages.

“Filipinos are working everywhere because they can speak English. …. Europe has even requested us to send 1 million people to work at their hotels and restaurants each year, and many of their heads of state have personally asked me. Their people do not want to work as waiters. … Perhaps we need to teach our workers English, … or maybe Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or even Korean,” Prabowo said at the time.

The government data showed that Indonesia had deployed 196,355 migrant workers so far this year as of September, most of whom had gone to Malaysia and Taiwan. About 53,141 individuals are housemaids.

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