"The transportation equipment and machinery industries rose by 8.98 percent, the food, beverage and tobacco industries were up 7.03 percent and the cement and non-metal quarrying goods industry jumped 6.92 percent," Industry Minister MS Hidayat said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Industry Minister MS Hidayat said he feels optimistic about the industrial sector achieving a 7.1 percent growth rate and expects the machinery and transportation equipment industry to be the biggest contributor to this expansion.

"After experiencing a slow growth rate in the 2005 to 2009 period, the manufacturing industrial sector has rebounded significantly. In 2011, the non-oil and gas processing industrial sector grew by 6.83 percent, which was higher than the national average of 6.46 percent. 2011's growth rate was the highest the sector has seen in the past five years," Hidayat said on Monday.

The industrial sub-sectors of transportation equipment and machinery experienced the biggest growth, he added.

"The transportation equipment and machinery industries rose by 8.98 percent, the food, beverage and tobacco industries were up 7.03 percent and the cement and non-metal quarrying goods industry jumped 6.92 percent," Hidayat added.

The first semester of 2012 saw the non-oil and non-gas processing industry grow by 6.09 percent, which was lower than the 6.35 percent growth this sector experienced in 2011.

This can be attributed to the global economic crisis, which has impacted Indonesia's trade performance, particularly in export destination countries such as the United States, Europe, Japan and other ASEAN countries.

Hidayat said he expects the Indonesian economy to realize its full potential and maintain industrial growth following an improvement in the economic prospects of United States and Japan in 2012.

Indonesian growth will also be fueled by the huge domestic market, which is made up of its 134 million-strong middle class population, he added.

"The government is also encouraging textile machine producers to restructure as about 500 factories need new machines. The restructuring program, which began in 2007, will also boost domestic industrial growth," the minister said.

Indonesia will also collaborate with South Korea to improve its textile industry, and for this purpose the Indonesian Ministry of Trade has tied up with the South Korea International Cooperation Agency.

"We need a total budget of US $1.6 million to implement this technical cooperation plan," Sungho Choi, the resident representative of the South Korea International Cooperation Agency said during the signing of the cooperation agreement at Hidayat`s office in Jakarta earlier this month.

Choi added that the Korean agency will allocate US $1.5 million to finance the purchase of tools for laboratory tests, expert assistance and training, while the Indonesian government will provide Rp950 million to support other parts of the program, which is expected to conclude by 2014.

Meanwhile, Aryanto Sagala, the Industry Ministry's Industry Climate and Quality Policy Board chief said Indonesia has chosen to tie up with South Korea because of the latter's reputation as one of the best textile producers in the world.

He expressed hope that the tie up will enhance the global competitiveness of Indonesian textiles. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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