Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Industry Minister M.S. Hidayat said the growth of domestic non-oil/non-gas processing industry reached a six-year high in 2011.

In 2011 alone, the non-oil/non-gas processing industry grew by 6.83 percent from 2010, surpassing the economic growth target of 6.5 percent for last year, he said here on Friday.

What was encouraging was that the sector contributed 20.92 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), he said.

"The figure is the highest among those of other sectors," he said.

All branches of the non-oil/non-gas processing industry in the past couple of years recorded positive growth, he said.

Compared to 2010, non-oil/non-gas processing industry`s exports rose 24.66 percent to US$122.19 billion in 2011, contributing 60.01 percent of the country`s overall exports last year, he said.

Citing an example, the minister said textile, leather product and footwear industries since 2005 had grown by an annual average of 7.52 percent compared to 2 percent in the previous period of five years.

He said the growth of base metal, iron and steel industry which was recorded at an average of less than 5 percent in the past six years now reached 13.06 percent.

He further said domestic investment in the industrial sector throughout 2011 reached Rp39.05 trillion, up by 52.5 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, foreign investment last year surged 101.9 percent to US$6.78 billion from the year before. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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