Warning that Indonesia Will Fail to Become an Industrial Nation, Deputy Speaker of the DPR: Just Be a Digger

JAKARTA – Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Coordinator for Industry and Development (Korinbang), Rachmat Gobel reminded us again that Indonesia is also flooded with imported textiles and apparel with traditional Indonesian fabric motifs, such as batik, woven, embroidered, songket and other motifs.

“This should be prevented by regulations that are still accepted by international trade norms. Our traditional fabrics are inherited from our ancestors. There are values ​​and culture there, not just economic matters. If we let this happen, over time the traditional Indonesian cloth industry will become extinct and traditional cloth artists will stop working. “In the long term, our next generation will not understand and will only know about it in museums,” said Gobel.

“It takes a long time to produce artisans and craftsmen of traditional cloth. And each traditional cloth has its own characteristics. Not to mention the loss of jobs and economic potential. So the losses are multiplied because we don’t have a cultural vision in this economic problem,” he said.

In addition, the Minister of Trade and the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) permitted more than 20 thousand containers of imported goods at the port. This was preceded by the issuance of Minister of Trade Regulation No. 8/2024 concerning the Third Amendment to Minister of Trade Regulation No. 36/2023 which provides relaxation for electronic products, traditional medicines and health supplements, cosmetics and household supplies, toys, footwear, apparel and clothing accessories. so, bags, and valves, which no longer require technical considerations to enter Indonesia.

This third change was only done in a matter of seconds from the second change, which was two months. This of course had an impact on the domestic industry because the domestic market was flooded imported products which is actually produced domestically.

“Until now it is not clear what was in the container. Some say the three million electronic goods in China are oversupplied, some say they are raw materials. We never know. Only they and God know,” said Gobel.

About problem dumping Gobel said, everyone already knows that a number of countries are dumping, especially China. “So this is not something new. So if we let the regulation to prevent dumping expire for two years, then we should ask: what’s going on?” he said.

According to him, the Indonesian industry is not only facing dumping practices, but also high interest rates and many levies. He also said that currently imported goods can be relaxed and facilitated as well as various incentives. Meanwhile, the domestic industry is actually high cost and lacks incentives.