The Filament Indonesia Fiber and Yarn Producers Association (APSyFI) and the Indonesian Textile Association (API) are asking to take steps to fix the conditions of domestic market so that textile industry grows healthily. Redma Gita Wirawasta, Secretary General of the Filament Indonesia Fiber and Yarn Producers Association (APSyFI), said that APSyFI and API agreed that the domestic market be fixed so that domestic producers could enjoy growing demand.
“What we are asking for revision of the Minister of Trade Regulation 64/2017 and improvement of imports through the PLB as well as safeguard protection for upstream to downstream products as done by the Turkish government,” said Redma. The Minister of Trade Regulation Number 64 concerning Provisions on Import of Textiles and Textile Products is revision of Permendag No. 85 of 2015. In the latest regulation, the government permits owners of API-U licenses to import textile raw materials, whereas in the previous regulation, only producers who had API-P permits who may import, provided that this raw material is not traded.
However, he considered the government was not easy to fulfill the APSyFI and API requests. The government, he said, will get opposition from those who have been enjoying imports. “It depends on the government, if you want to side with the community you should be able to support the industry because it will open jobs. Local markets must be given to the industry. ” In addition, by limiting imports of textiles and textile products, Indonesia’s trade balance can also return to health. Meanwhile, overall the textile and apparel industry (TPT) still recorded good growth of 18.98% on an annual basis in the first quarter of 2019. The increase in production was sustained by production of the apparel industry sector which skyrocketed to 29.19% due to the abundance of orders, especially from the export market. In 2018, the textile industry recorded exports worth US $ 13.22 billion, up 5.55% compared to the previous year. In addition, this sector absorbs a workforce of 3.6 million people.
However, growth of the downstream textile or apparel industry in the first quarter of 2019 was mentioned not to be accompanied by an increase in uptake of upstream industrial products. During the first three months of this year the textile raw material industry contracted.
