5/5/07 Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Implementation of the government`s oil-palm plantation revitalization program on 2 million hectares of land in 2007-2011 will require the employment of about 340,000 people, an Agriculture Ministry official said.

Graduates of schools at elementary up to unversity level can apply for jobs in the program so long as they have a global concept, Ato Suprapto, head of the Agriculture Ministry`s human resources development division, said here Saturday.

He said the ministry needed 298,000 people to work as oil-palm farmers, 24,000 people to work in the oil-palm cultivation sector and 18,000 in palm-oil factories.

Besides the 340,000 people, the ministry would also need 637,500 other people to work at public oil-palm plantations on 1.5 million hesctares of land over the next five years.

The ministry`s human resources development division would therefore conduct a retooling program on the oil-palm business for graduates of agriculture faculties to support the oil-palm plantation revitalization program, he said.

"The revitalization program will hopefully make Indonesia the world`s largest oil-palm producer and exporter in 2012, replacing Malaysia," Ato said. (*)