The bulk of the user rights bought by China were for electrical and electronic goods, machineries, agricultural tools and consumer goods.
Kuta, Bali (ANTARA News) - China has bought as many as 653 user rights on Indonesia`s National Standard (SNI) system in anticipation of the implementation of standards for foreign industrial products intended for the Indonesian market, an government official has said.

"It seems that China has been preparing itself to get into a wider Indonesian market so that it wants its products to comply with our SNI," said head of the National Standardization Board (BSN) Bambang Setiadi here on Tuesday.

China bought the user rights on the SNI in November 2010, said Setiadi on the sidelines of an Asian CEO-International Standard Organization (ISO) forum held in Bali on March 1-3 and attended by 26 delegates from 18 countries, including ASEAN member states, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Papua New Guinea.

The bulk of the user rights bought by China were for electrical and electronic goods, machineries, agricultural tools and consumer goods, Setiadi added.

Setiadi regretted the fact that China had bought the user rights on SNI while the Indonesian industrial community had not fully realized the importance of SNI.

The lack of awareness of SNI`s functions in Indonesia, he said, due to the voluntary nature of its implementation on the largest sectors of the products totaling 6,800. Only some 250 are of mandatory nature, among others on tire, gas tube, hose, valve and stoves.

Business in Indonesia uses only up to 30 percent of the SNI, a situation is also normally found in other developing nations.

In effort to encourage the implementation of the SNI by the industries, the Indonesian government has since early this year made it an obligation that goods and services for government use must be in accordance with the SNI.

The consequence of the obligation on the SNI implementation for goods and services intended for government use has been seen would bring about big impact on the industries as the government spends some 500 trillion rupiahs per year on goods and services.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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