Indonesia's textile sector needs to work on its efficiency to compete with the textile industries of other ASEAN countries, Ramon Bangun, director of textile and miscellaneous industries, at the Ministry of Industry of Indonesia, has said. Unlike other ASEAN countries like Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos PDR, Indonesia has not entered a trade agreement which allows a special duty to export textile products to Europe and the US. As a result of which, the Indonesian textile industry lacks competitiveness, Mr. Bangun added, according to a Tempo Bisnis report. Mr. Bangun hopes for an early signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Indonesia and the European Union, allowing the Southeast Asian country to trade freely with the EU and promote the textile industry.
In order to compete with the value-added textile items of the other ASEAN countries, Indonesia started exporting wrinkle-resistant textiles. The Indonesian textile enterprises should quickly implement the restructuring program of innovative and advanced machinery from Germany and Switzerland which will improve the competitiveness of Indonesia vis-à-vis other ASEAN countries, Mr. Bangun said. As a supplier of textiles and apparels, Indonesia caters to around 1.8 percent of global demand equaling to about US$ 12.46 billion, representing around 10.7 percent of the country's total non-oil and non-gas exports.
