“The AEC has often been misunderstood – there are a lot of myths surrounding it that worry people,” said Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri in a meeting with the House of Representatives’ Commission IX overseeing labor affairs on Thursday.

“Many people think foreign workers will flock into the country, but that’s not entirely true,” he went on.

Hanif said the number of foreign workers coming to Indonesia had in fact decreased over the past five years, from 77,000 in 2011 to 69,000 in 2015. After the implementation of the AEC, foreign workers may only be employed in certain jobs, covering eight professions and 12 sectors. Most of the jobs are in the line of managers, directors, advisors, commissioners, expert technicians or expert supervisors, the minister explained.

The AEC is one of three ASEAN pillars, alongside the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). The primary goal of the AEC is to create a single market among ASEAN nations. However, questions still arise among the public about the potential impacts of the AEC on the country’s business environment.

“People are worried that foreign workers will flood into Indonesia while our local workers are not yet ready to compete,” said lawmaker Djoni Rolindrawan at the meeting.

Hanif said the government planned to improve the quality of Indonesian workers, providing them with better education and training programs. School-age children should go to a good-quality school and uneducated people of productive age should be offered good-quality training courses in the field of their choice, he noted.

“The standard of our education and training programs should be balanced. If there is a certification program for teachers, there should also be an instructor certification program. If there are scholarships for students, there should be scholarship offers for trainees too,” said Hanif.