Indonesia aiming to become one of top five textile exporters
31/08/2016
Indonesia currently occupies tenth place in the rankings with a 1.8% share of the textile export market. China is at the head of the list.
Mr Hartarto said that Indonesia must first become the dominant textile supplier in its domestic market before pursuing overseas expansion. The country imports a large proportion of its textiles from China.
He added that the industry ministry is currently making efforts to develop vocational schools to train local people to work in the textile industry. He said that if Indonesia’s textile industry is to grow 5-6% per year it will require an additional 600,000 workers. It currently employs more than three million people.
According to Mr Hartarto, efficiency is the key to growing Indonesia’s textile industry. He believes that importing the raw materials has increased the cost of production and urged the removal of VAT on raw materials sourced locally to encourage manufacturers to buy them from the domestic market.
He highlighted the government’s initiative to lower gas prices in order to reduce production costs in the textile industry. An official from the industry ministry recently said that labour-intensive industries (such as textiles) could expect to benefit from lower gas prices from the second half of August.
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