Addressing the opening of the IIMS, the vice president said that automotive industries played an important and strategic role in the development of industries in line with the progress of technology usage.
He said that automotive industries will become the backbone of industries in Indonesia in the future because it would fulfill three pillars in the country`s industrial development.
The first pillar, he said, is the development of downstream industries with added values.
He said the second pillar was that industrial development was oriented to maximizing multiplier effect at home while the third pillar was that industrialization today had become the world chain of supply.
IIMS 2013 organizing committee chairman Johny Darmawan said meanwhile that a total of 36 automotive brand holder companies and 276 supporting industries were taking part in the show which consisted of more than 300 exhibition stands.
Themed with `Smart Vehicle Mobility` the IIMS is being organized on a 75 thousand sq meter area, expanding from the previous show site which was only about 70 thousand sq m.
According to Johny, the IIMS is the biggest automotive exhibition in South East Asia which is growing in line with the increasing growth of the Indonesian economy.
He said that in 2012, the number of sold cars reached 1.067 million, up 21 percent from the previous year. In the first semester of this year, the car sales have reached 692 units.
Johny said that the same thing also happened with motorcycles where in 2012 sales reached 1.116 million units or about 32.3 percent of the ASEAN ceiling.
He said that the IIMS 2013 portrayed Indonesia`s automotive industrial and economic advancement so that it was expected to attract investors.
In the meantime, the Indonesian government is now developing environment-friendly cars through its low-cost green car (LCGC) program.
"Indonesia is ready to implement the LCGC (low cost green car) system, and is expected to invite foreign investors to come and get involved in the green car scheme," Budi Darmadi, the Director General of Technology-Based Industry at the Ministry of Industry, said on Tuesday.
He made the statement during the 1st APEC-AD (Automotive Dialogue) Workshop for the 8th Indonesia International Automotive Conference held on Tuesday where the government invited a number of stakeholders to discuss the environmentally friendly cars program.
The Chairman of the Association for Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers Association (Gaikindo) Jongkie Sugiarto said that the Indonesian market was open to the idea of an environmentally friendly cars program, because domestic car sales` growth could surpass a million units per year.
"Sales reaching more than one million per year could stimulate the Indonesian market," he said.
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
