Quoted by the State News Agency Antara, the former Governor of Bali and a member of the Regional Representative Council (DPD), Made Mangku Pastika, says that Bali’s younger generation must understand and embrace entrepreneurship to prevent growing unemployment on the Island.
“Through entrepreneurship, we will be able to create employment opportunities, at the very least for ourselves, to avoid becoming a burden on the families and local community,” said Pastika.
Former Bali Governor and DPD Member
Pastika said entrepreneurship is a central issue in the future of Bali. This is particularly the case in Bali that does not have any natural resources such as minerals or oil. Because of this, Bali must depend on the quality of its labor force which Pastika feels is, in relative terms within the region, talented and intelligent.
The former governor of Bali for two consecutive terms, called on Bali’s institutions of higher education to produce young people who have an entrepreneurial orientation. Adding: “Graduates won’t end up carrying their resumes door-to-door while adding to the list of the unemployed. These graduates should not only be workers but become people capable of creating employment opportunities,” said Pastika during a virtual online conference of creating an entrepreneurial mindset.
Pastika predicts that in the future, there will be very few who wish to pursue a higher education that they will come to view as a waste of time and money if they only face unemployment after graduation.
Pastika commented that the advanced state of information technology means that anyone can easily study and obtain information via the Internet.
Turning Obstacles into Opportunities
The senior member of the government who once served as the Governor of Bali and the Chief of the Bali Police predicts that the global pandemic will not end in only one or two years, making the role of entrepreneurs equipped to turn obstacles into opportunities increasingly important.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Bali recorded one of the lowest unemployment rates in Indonesia, at less than one or two percent. Two years into the pandemic crisis, the Balinese economy, heavily dependent on tourism, saw unemployment increase substantially to 5.63 percent in 2020.