Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is lagging far behind other countries in social security and protection system, a legislator said.

"Even capitalist countries such as those in Europe and North America have social insurance for their poor people," Fayakun Andriadi of the Golkar Faction of the House of Representatives (DPR) said here on Sunday.

He was referring to the uncertainty of the Social Insurance Management Agency Bill (RUU BPJS) which has not yet been enacted by the House.

Fayakun said that Indonesia also lagged behind even the South East Asian countries. "They have been advanced in providing social security and protection of their peoples," he said.

He said that Malaysia already had the Employee Provident Fund (EFP) which provided social security guarantees for about 12.5 million workers.

So was the case of Singapore which had the Central Provident Fund (CPF) which grouped 116,000 employers and 1.8 million workers.

Thailand had the Social Security Office (SSO) with 391,869 employers and 9.45 million workers.

"Even the Philippines has the Social Security Scheme (SSS) which provides security guarantees for 8.9 million workers," he said.

But Indonesia, he said, based on data he had gathered, only provides social security services for 8.5 million workers in the formal sector, while the number of workers in this sector alone reaches 29 million.

"This is only 30 percent of the workers who are covered with insurance security services," he said.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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