The TPT and footwear exports were valued at US$12.46 billion last year, director general of manufacture industry Panggah Susanto said here Thursday.
Apart from major contributor in export earning the two industries are labor intensive providing large jobs, Panggah said.
He said the country`s footwear industry provide 1.8 percent of the world`s footwear requirement.
He said 1.5 million jobs are provided for Indonesian workers by TPT industry and 700,000 jobs by footwear industry.
Exports of footwear and other leather goods valued at US$3.5 billion giving the country a surplus of US$2 billion on the average annually in the trade of the two leather-based commodities in the past five years, he said.
"The surplus in TPT trade in the past five years averaged US$4.5 billion," he added.
Last year, the country`s exports of commodities outside oil and gas grew 6.4 percent higher than the country`s economic growth rate of 6.23 percent.
Panggah said processing industry outside the oil and gas sector contributed 23.04 percent to the country`s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The TPT, footwear and leather goods industries alone contributed 2.1 percent to the GDP.
(H-ASG/B003)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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