SOEs Ministry Presses for More Involvement of Younger Staff, Women

JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry aims to involve more women, millennials, and Papuans either in its companies or in the ministry itself, in a bid to build a diverse, equal and sustainable leadership.

SOEs Minister Erick Thohir will target the promotion of 10 percent of young leaders in the SOEs by 2023, or double from five percent of young leaders promoted this year.

Young and women leadership is viewed as a driving force to help expedite the realization of the SOEs's programs, as well as to transform the human capital.

"I am fully concerned about the human capital transformation, since it is the start to push the transformation in the ministry. We are changing the structures, leaderships, mindsets, and core values we own," he said.

In addition, young people are blessed with outstanding intelligence and mindsets that, in nature, may function differently when they are older, according to Thohir.

"In terms of leadership, we know that God blesses extraordinary intelligence and mindsets to humans, but in the limited ages," he said. Hence, the Indonesian younger generation should be offered the opportunities to become leaders and take positions in SOEs that align with their competence.

By 2021-end, the minister installed some young leaders under 42 years in several strategic positions, such as Soleh Ayubi, 38, who currently serves as Chief Digital Health Officer at PT Bio Farma. He formerly worked and built a career in the United States.

Muhammad Fajrin Rasyid is also among the young leaders who was promoted to become a director at PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia. He formerly served as Bukalapak co-Founder and President.

Productive Generation

The ministry is pressing for young leadership, since Indonesia will reach a critical momentum from 2024-2034 when young people under 40 years will become the majority in the country.

Young people will dominate and become the trendsetters in the market during the upcoming years.

Currently, however, most of the Indonesian younger generation tend to be consumptive, not productive.

"We must change the mindsets, and how they can be productive and create the markets for Indonesian markets," he noted.

To this end, they need to be assisted with a supporting ecosystem that helps them to develop their ideas and create breakthroughs.

Thohir spoke of his intent to build such an ecosystem, that could be very competitive among other countries.

He mentioned South Korea as a country that has successfully built its pop-culture ecosystem in the past ten years, compared to the US and Japan that had led the industry.

He is optimistic that Indonesia can also be the country that can build its own supporting ecosystem, as it has large infrastructures and SOEs in many areas, such as telecommunication, banking and tourism.

Indonesia is also projected to become the fourth largest economy in the world. Such a prediction will not remain a dream if the young generation prepares themselves well, Thohir noted.

"The opportunities will not come twice. We have built toll roads, airports, seaports, and other infrastructures. In the near future, we will build digital infrastructures, such as data centers, wifi, optic fiber, 5G tower," he said.

Women Empowerment

The role of women is inseparable in SOEs, since their ideas, thoughts, initiatives, and actions contribute to the companies' advancement.

Women leaders in SOEs mirror the ministry's efforts in enhancing equal leadership. They hold some strategic positions akin to president director, for instance, with President Director of PT Pertamina Nicke Widyawati, President Director of PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry Ira Puspadewi, and President Director of Airnav Indonesia Polana B Pramesti.

To involve more women in SOEs, the ministry incorporated with Indonesian Human Capital Forum (FHCI) and Indonesia's Plan Foundation also ran an empowerment program for young and talented women, namely the 2021 Girls Takeover. The program offers opportunities for six young women aged 20-24 years who were selected from some 7,000 candidates, to play a role as a SOEs ministers or directors for one day to coincide with International Daughters' Day on October 11.

One of the finalists, Sharon Florencia, 24, shared her experience in taking over as SOEs Minister. She acknowledged the valuable lessons she gained from Minister Thohir, especially from his leadership.

"During taking over as the SOEs Minister, I observed the need to boost women's leadership through mentorship programs for women, as well as scholarship programs for those in eastern Indonesia who do not have equal access to education," she said.

Another finalist, Adinda Zenniar, 20, who took over Bank Mandiri President Director Darmawan Junaidi, is keen on enhancing women's capabilities in digitalization.

"I see that the company plays an important role in enhancing women's leadership in information and communication technology by providing training and job opportunities for young women to work in this area," she said.

Young Papuans in SOEs

BUMN Muda (Young SOEs), a community under FHCI, plays an active role in developing SOEs' human capital, including young talents from Papua and West Papua, to become future leaders.

"We focus on human capital development of the young generation nationwide, including young talents from Papua and West Papua," BUMN Muda Chairman Soleh Ayubi said.

FHCI recruited 776 young Papuans by 2021-end. They were installed in 55 SOEs, reaching 77 percent of the realization from 1,000 talents targeted.

The forum strives to uphold the commitment to recruiting the best Papuan talents by improving the process and the SOEs involvement to offer them more opportunities, FHCI Chairwoman Alexandra Askandar remarked.

The commitment is in line with President Joko Widodo's policy to recruit 1,000 young talents from Papua and West Papua to work in SOEs across Indonesia.

SOURCE Ministry of State-Owned Enterprise