Jakarta – A senior official at a state-run agency providing social insurance (BPJS) for workers said Tuesday that the agency was scheduled to provide full insurance benefits for workers in the country next year, targeting to serve 20.7 million workers in the first year. “We are targeting to serve all workers in the nation by 2018,” Elvyn G. Masassya said in city hall here.

He added that as of now, the agency serves 15.4 million workers from 218,000 firms, managing 177 trillion rupiah (about 15.4 billion U.S. dollars) of insurance funds. Elvyn said that 70 percent of the agency’s clients were Small Middle Enterprises (SMEs).

According to Elvyn, the BPJS for workers now provides insurance schemes that comprised life insurance, future life insurance and accident in workplace insurance.

He added that the agency would provide pension insurance program for workers in private firms from next year.

The capital city of Jakarta would be the first province in the country to see initial implementation of the agency’s full service next year, Elvyn said.

The BPJS for workers was launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Dec. 31, 2013, along with BPJS, for public health. The two programs were designed as landmark nationwide social insurance under National Health Insurance (JKN) program.

The two BPJS programs were designated to serve civil servants, civil servant pensioners, police and military, war veterans and their families, firms and the public. Source: Xinhua