"Looking ahead, we will need a great number of malls like Summarecon Mall Serpong, Senayan City, and other malls in and around Jakarta," Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said.
Tangerang, Banten (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will need a great number of supermarkets and malls in the upcoming years to cater to rising consumption growth, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said.

"Looking ahead, we will need a great number of malls like Summarecon Mall Serpong, Senayan City, and other malls in and around Jakarta," he said in a dialog with the Indonesian Retailers Association in Jakarta`s southwestern outskirts of Serpong on Wednesday.

He predicted the country`s accumulative consumption in the next 20 years will reach Rp360 thousand trillion. "With nearly 60 percent of spending going to consumption, the value of our accumulative consumption in the next 20 years will reach about Rp360 thousand trillion," he said.

Currently, domestic consumption which reaches Rp10 thousand trillion contributes 55-60 percent of the national economy, he said.

With the national economy growing by a range of 5-6 percent annually, he predicted the domestic consumption will increase to up to Rp70 trillion annually in 20 years.

"We should not only benefit from the rising economic cake scale but also try to strengthen the spirit of evenly distribution in such a way that the entire Indonesian nation can enjoy development gains," he said.

He asked national industries to be able to meet the domestic needs. "We should not only buy foreign products but also produce domestic goods such as mobile phones. If our friends working for Astra can produce cars why cannot we produce mobile phones?" he asked. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013