CONFLICT MANAGEMENT OF LABOUR ISSUE BETWEEN CHINESE AND LOCAL WORKERS AT BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE PROJECT IN INDONESIA FROM INDONESIAN PERSPECTIVE

• Main Author: Lathifania, Shafira
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Manajemen umum
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/55082
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is predicted as China's ambitious project to revive the 21st century silk-road. This project aims to build infrastructure by connecting Asia, Africa and Europe with the hope of increasing globalisation and international trading. The Chinese government, through BRI, provides loans to countries along the BRI corridor, especially developing countries, to help facilitate infrastructure development, including Indonesia. President Joko Widodo believes that BRI has the same vision and goals as the Global Maritime Fulcrum policy which aims to promote infrastructure progress between regions. After the two countries agreed to invest in infrastructure with a business-to-business (B2B) scheme, many Chinese companies started investing in Indonesia by establishing companies, including the influx of Chinese foreign workers on a large scale. This phenomenon becomes a concern to the Indonesian because the large number of Chinese workers who come will threaten reduced employment opportunities for local residents. In addition, there are many cases show that these Chinese investors bring their unskilled workers who clearly violate the applicable legal regulations because foreign workers who are allowed to work in Indonesia are experts or high-skilled workers who can provide technology and knowledge transfer for local workers. This issue eventually became the beginning of conflict and Indonesian public sentiment towards Chinese foreign workers. This paper uses a conflict management approach and fishbone analysis to identify the causes of the problems arising from the conflict between these workers. This study also uses McKinsey's 7S framework and PESTEL analysis to identify the causal factors of conflict. As a limitation, this research only focuses on the movement of Chinese foreign workers through BRI and does not study in-depth about trade in goods, investment, environment, and infrastructure improvements. This study uses a qualitative approach by conducting interviews and collecting data as the main source of research. The results of this study found that conflicts that occurred between Chinese and local foreign workers were caused by differences in treatment received in the workplace such as facilities and wages as well as cultural differences that led to less harmonious relations between foreign and local workers.