Adrian Wail Akhlas and Ghina Ghaliya, Jakarta – The government has submitted a letter to the House of Representatives to officially start the deliberation of an omnibus bill on job creation, after failing to do so several times.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said the letter was submitted on Wednesday, along with the draft law and academic analysis. The bill would amend more than 1,000 articles in 79 prevailing laws, including the Labor Law.
"We will release information on the bill to the public by involving government officials and lawmakers," Airlangga told reporters at the House complex in Jakarta. "This is to let everyone know about the substance of the bill on creating more jobs amid global uncertainty and the coronavirus crisis."
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly and Agrarian and Spatial Minister Sofyan Djalil were among the government's entourage met by House speaker Puan Maharani.
Airlangga added that the bill contained 174 articles in 15 chapters.
The government expects the bill to cut red tape and attract more investment to push the country's sluggish economic growth. Indonesia's economy grew by 5.02 percent last year, the lowest rate since 2015, as investment and exports cooled.
Airlangga had been scheduled to submit the letter and the bill to the House on Tuesday, several lawmakers said, but had failed to do so. That was not the first time the government failed to meet its own deadline for submitting the bill, as it previously expected to do so in December.
The government expects deliberations on the bill to start soon as it has been included in the 2020 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas). President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has said that he wants the deliberations to be concluded within 100 working days.
The Prolegnas lists four omnibus bills, including bills on job creation and on taxation.