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Sragen, Central Java. A minister on Tuesday said that a 2003 labor law that allowed companies to outsource workers needed to be revised before the much-criticized outsourcing labor system could be dropped.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had already ordered five universities to conduct a review of the 2003 law as part of efforts to see whether the outsourcing system, opposed by labor advocates, could be done away with.

Erman told reporters on the sideline of a ceremony in which the president inaugurated the Technopark Sasana Ganesha Sukowati in Sragen, Central Java, that the law was “a funny regulation,” because employers and employees both disliked it.

“That is why we need to amend this law and this is the lawmakers and the government’s political responsibility,” Erman said.

The call for revision came after former President Megawati Sukarnoputri promised during this year’s campaign for the nation’s top office to do away with the system if she won.

In Yudhoyono’s speech at the opening of the technology park, he said he expected regional leaders to coordinate their local labor markets and tailor educational opportunities in their areas to meet the specific needs of their economies. He said this would ensure that graduates would not have to look for jobs in other cities or overseas.

The president said that the heads of districts and municipalities, as well as local entrepreneurs, played an important role in preparing ready and able vocational school and university graduates for the future, because the leaders knew what their local economies required.

The Sragen Technopark is a technology training center that began construction in 2007. It cost Rp 39.6 billion ($3.9 million) and is expected to train 5,000 workers annually.