Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla recently announced that Vietnam and Cambodia support Indonesia’s proposal for setting a minimum wage standard, which will be followed by all the ASEAN member states. Kalla said this on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on ASEAN, which recently took place in Malaysia, and also expressed the need for this standardization as it would prevent ASEAN workers from getting exploited.
“Competition is good as long as it does not harm us with regard to pressure on wages because their raw materials and factories are the same,” explained Kalla. This step is expected to eradicate comparison between different ASEAN member states in terms of minimum wages by multinational companies. The ASEAN General Secretary will soon be invited to discuss the matter with Cambodia and Vietnam. “Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia have many workers. We will likely ask Bangladesh. The minimum wages in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand are already high,” averred Kalla.
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According to the Vice President, wage standardization is important also because international garment manufacturers are relocating their plants from Indonesia to Cambodia and Vietnam because of lower wages in the later countries, which is harmful for all the ASEAN members, in the long run. “Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia have many workers. We will likely ask Bangladesh. The minimum wages in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand are already high,” concluded Kalla.
