Having more people working overseas will also benefit the country because the money they remit home will serve as a source of foreign exchange. At present, remittances total at least 25 trillion rupiah (US$2.72 billion) a year.

"It is our priority to send as many of our workers abroad as possible because employment opportunities here are limited," said Mardjono, the director in charge of protecting migrant workers, at the Manpower Ministry.

At least 10 per cent of the country's 220 million population are unemployed and many thousands enter the labour market every year.

Mardjono said that four million Indonesians now work abroad. He estimated that 75 per cent of them are skilled workers holding technical jobs in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, while the rest are domestic maids.

"However, in future, we will send only skilled workers abroad. It will mean more remittances from them as they will be better paid," he said at a panel discussion organised by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.

He added that the government will set up a special agency this month to protect migrant workers and oversee the labour export programme. Around 350,000 Indonesian workers find employment overseas each year through licensed job agencies.