Work on a Bali beach? Indonesia to send civil servants to island

The Indonesian government is working on a plan to send thousands of Jakarta-based civil servants to work remotely from Bali, in a bid to help the economy of the tourism-reliant island rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Up to 8,000 employees at seven ministries will probably be eligible for the programme, which is being overseen by the office of the coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment. They include workers at the energy ministry, the public works ministry and the transportation ministry.

“This is part of the government’s efforts to create demand so that hotels and restaurants in Bali can survive,” Odo Manuhutu, deputy for tourism and creative economy at the minister’s office, told reporters. “In line with the health ministry’s guidelines, Bali’s vaccination rate is currently the highest and fastest [among Indonesia’s provinces] . . . to make sure that Bali is safe to visit.”

Manuhutu said the government was aiming to inoculate 2.8m Bali residents aged 18 or older — or more than 60 per cent of the island’s population — by July. Officials had earlier said they wanted to launch some kind of a “work from Bali” programme that month.

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With 80 per cent of its economy dependent on tourism and related sectors, Bali reported the deepest contractions among Indonesia’s 34 provinces in 2020 and in the first quarter of this year — at 9.3 per cent and 9.85 per cent, respectively. Indonesia’s economy, meanwhile, shrank 2.07 per cent and 0.74 per cent in the two periods.

Manuhutu said many Bali hotels had been reporting about 8 to 10 per cent occupancy rates during the pandemic, forcing them to furlough their workers. Assigning some civil servants to work from Bali is expected to encourage workers from the private sector to follow suit, thus helping Bali fill its 140,000 or so hotel rooms.

“We’re hoping that our presence in Bali will create multiplier effects,” said tourism minister Sandiaga Uno. “We’re hoping [it] will trigger a herd mentality, followed by other sectors — the private sector, academic institutions and communities.”

Most employees at government offices in Jakarta — except essential workers — are still working on a 50:50 basis, under which they regularly switch between working at the office and at home.

Vinsensius Jemadu, director for tourism marketing at the tourism and creative economy ministry, said among the plans is to get half of those having their work-from-home shift to do it from Bali — including administrative work and virtual meetings.

“We can set a quota for each ministry or state institution. The civil servants will be able to work from Bali in turns until the end of the year,” he said.

Jemadu added that the government was still calculating the budget for the programme, saying it would be “huge”. Accommodation alone is estimated to cost at least 3m rupiah ($209) per month for each employee. They will be concentrated in the Nusa Dua resort area, which employs more than 7,500 workers directly and 10,000 more indirectly — about 40 per cent have received their vaccine shots.

“We’ve done various efforts before to support the tourism industry through grants, loan stimulus, etc — but they’re still unable to boost demand,” Jemadu said.

Bali welcomed about 350 foreign arrivals between January and April, down from 1.2m in the same period of last year, according to data from state airport operator Angkasa Pura. Domestic arrivals, meanwhile, dropped to 417,000 from 993,000.

Uno said Indonesia had been discussing potential travel corridor arrangements with several countries — including Singapore, Vietnam, the UK and Russia. He had earlier said that under the schemes, some locations in Bali and Riau Islands Province, which directly neighbours Singapore, would be designated as “green zones” — or Covid-free areas.

The minister added that the government was preparing policies and telecommunications infrastructure to help Bali catch up with the rising trend of digital nomads — a loose group of remote workers and freelancers who travel the globe and earn a living anywhere as long as there is fast and reliable internet connection. This includes a plan for long-term visa arrangements.

A version of this article was first published on May 25 by Nikkei Asia. ©2021 Nikkei Inc. All rights reserved.

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