Medan, North Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Industry minister Mohamad S Hidayat stated that Indonesia has been accelerating its industrial growth to meet the national economic growth target.

"The acceleration is aimed at boosting growth in the industrial sector as a main catalyst for increasing national economic growth," he noted here on Friday, when launching the construction of a steel plant of PT Gahapi Nisco Indonesia, which is a joint venture company between PT Gunung Gahapi Sakti in Medan and Nanjing Iron and Steel Co.Ltd. from China.

He added that the acceleration program was started in 2012 through five main strategies.

The strategies include encouraging the participation of businesses in infrastructure development, accelerating decision making process to settle bureaucratic hurdles, reorienting raw material and energy resource export policy.

The fourth and fifth strategies are boosting productivity and competitiveness and increasing the integration of domestic markets.

To implement the acceleration program he explained that his ministry has carried out four priority programs namely agriculture-based, oil and gas and minerals downstream industrial development, improving the competitiveness of human resource-based industries, development of small and medium industries and spreading distribution of industries.

The main target of the programs is to increase the added value of domestic industries through development of human resource-based downstream industries, domination of domestic markets and increasing exports of products from domestic industries and increasing employment and poverty eradication.

"The cooperation carried out by Gunung Gahapi Sakti and Nisco is certainly helping the acceleration of industrial development," he pointed out.

Reporting by Evalisa Siregar
(H-YH/INE/A014)
EDITED BY INE
(KR-BSR/A014)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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