Foreign firms asked to cut number of expatriates

The legislative council of the Riau province has called on foreign companies operating in the province to cut the number of their foreign workers and replace them with the locals.

Ida Bagiawaty, the vice chairman of the commission V of the legislative council said in Pekanbaru on Tuesday that the foreign companies should have a long-term program to replace their foreign workers with locals.

She acknowledged that the foreign companies mostly still relied on expatriates in operating their industrial activities. "But they must have a concrete program in the transfer of the technology to the local workers so that the number of their expatriates could be gradually reduced.

A number of foreign companies are operating in the natural resources rich province. But many of them are still reluctant to hire the local workers to fill positions in their middle management level. (*)