"The textile and textile products (TPT) industry is one of the mainstay sectors because it contributes greatly to the national economy. Moreover, the textile industry is a sector that is classified as labor-intensive and export-oriented," said the Ministry of Industry's Director of the Textile, Leather and Footwear Industry Muhdori in his statement in Jakarta on Sunday.
Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) also show that the production of large and medium manufacturing industries (IBS) in the first quarter of 2019 rose 4.45 percent compared to the same period last year.
The increase in IBS production was sustained by the production of the apparel industry sector which skyrocketed to 29.19 percent due to the abundance of orders, especially from the export market.
According to Muhdori, the high growth that occurred in the textile industry, mainly due to the existence of substantial investment in the upstream sector, especially rayon producers.
This can be seen from the operation of PT Asia Pacific Rayon (APR) in Riau at the end of 2018, with an investment of Rp11 trillion. The plant adds a production capacity of 240 thousand tons per year, half of which is oriented to the needs of the export market.
"That led to an increase in exports. In addition, the increasing supply from upstream also encourages performance to the downstream and intermediate industries, so that cumulatively the industry gets more excited. This is indicated by TPT's exports which rose 1.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, "he said.
Then, with the existence of a control policy on imports carried out by the government since February 2017, it also had a positive impact on the decline in imports which reached 2.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019.
"The decline in imports also had an impact on the trade balance surplus which also rose," he said.
Furthermore, increasing the productivity of the textile industry is also supported through various vocational education and training activities conducted by the Ministry of Industry. This program creates competent and productive industrial human resources.
In fact, there was also the momentum of general elections some time ago, which some textile industry players produced attributes for the campaign.
"The consumption of textile and textile products is also believed to continue to increase along with population growth and lifestyle changes. In taking advantage of this opportunity, the national textile industry players must work hard to improve productivity, quality and efficiency through the application of more modern technologies in accordance with the digital era, "Muhdori said.
Translator: Eliswan Azly
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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