Bali to provide soft loans for migrant workers - Jakarta Post

Bali’s provincial administration plans to provide soft loans for all its residents, particularly in the low-income bracket, who are eager to work overseas but face funding problems.

Governor Made Mangku Pastika said that working overseas, on cruise liners in particular, was a good way to improve the livelihoods of poor families.

“I think, we have a big chance to overcome poverty through the program. We can give soft loans to poor people on the island to fund their courses and various expenses needed to work overseas,” Pastika said after the opening ceremony for a job fair involving 50 companies at Lila Bhuana, Ngurah Rai Sports Stadium, in Denpasar on Friday.

Currently, 3.95 percent of Bali’s 4.1 million residents are living below the poverty line, making Bali the province with the second lowest number of poor people in the nation, after Jakarta. The percentage of impoverished residents has fallen from around 6 percent in 2008. This year, the administration is targeting reducing poverty to 3.28 percent of the population. Pastika, who was re-elected in May, is eager to decrease poverty to 1 percent by the end of his leadership in 2018.

Through the Bali Mandara initiatives, the administration implements several poverty alleviation programs, comprising JKBM, a free healthcare service for all registered residents of the island; bedah rumah, house renovation assistance for poor households; simantri, cash and technical assistance for farmers’ groups willing to adopt organic farming and alternative energy sources; scholarships for underprivileged students; cash assistance for customary villages and traditional farming and irrigation societies; and gerbang sadhu, a generous Rp 1 billion (US$92,500) in aid for any village willing to establish community-based economic enterprises.

“We want to speed up poverty eradication. Working overseas may greatly improve livelihoods. I am sure that there are many people who are willing to work in foreign countries, but they mostly don’t have the money to study and depart for those destinations,” Pastika said.

An increasing number of young people on the island are now considering working overseas as the best way to improve their future. Positions in hotels, spas and on cruises ships abroad not only offer the chance to travel and learn about other cultures, but also a higher rate of pay than available from tourism establishments back home. Indonesian workers overseas can earn over $1,000 per month working on a cruise ship.

The provincial manpower agency recorded that in 2011 there were 14,944 Bali-based workers working overseas. The number decreased to 12,596 in 2012 but is expected to soar significantly this year. Most of the overseas workers are in the cruise industry. Others work in hotels, restaurants and spas in the US, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, India, the Maldives, Turkey, Cyprus, Russia and other countries.

Pastika said that it was estimated that a total of around Rp 20 million was needed for people to start work for a cruise line. This figure includes the cost of study, tickets, and many other administrative costs. “It will be hard for poor people, especially those in rural areas, to get Rp 20 million. That’s why, the soft loans are needed,” he stressed.

The administration plans to implement the soft loan program in cooperation with Bank Pembangunan Daerah (BPD) Bali, Bali Regional Bank, and the Bali Mandara regional loan guarantee company PT Jamkrida.
“We will approach BPD Bali to distribute the loans, and PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara is ready to be guarantor,” he said.

PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara is a loan guarantee institution established by the provincial administration in cooperation with the Denpasar mayoralty, Badung, Gianyar, Karangasem, Bangli and Tabanan regencies. The administrations collected total venture capital of Rp 52,675 billion, which enables PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara to distribute loans with a ceiling of up to Rp 2 trillion.

A survey in February 2013 revealed that 45,380 people, or 1.89 percent of the workforce in Bali, are unemployed. This is a decrease compared to 2012 when 47,330 people, or 2.04 percent of workforce, was unemployed.