Robust growth brings digital era to RI<\/p>\n
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The country's production of consumer electronics has been
\nbooming in the last three years. This is supported by continued
\ninvestment by foreign companies, who are interested to expand
\ntheir market share in the country of 220 million people.<\/p>\n
Minister of Industry and Trade Rini M.S. Soewandi predicts
\nthat electronic exports will reach US$7 billion this year,
\ncompared to last year's $6 billion.<\/p>\n
Two big South Korea-based electronic companies, PT LG
\nElectronics Indonesia and PT Samsung Electronics Indonesia, are
\noptimistic about the growth of Indonesia's market, pledging more
\ninvestment in the coming years.<\/p>\n
LG general manager Moon Ik Jang said the firm planned to
\ninvest $90 million to boost its production and sales in Indonesia
\nnext year, up from an estimated $69 million this year. Last year,
\nthe firm invested approximately $56 million.<\/p>\n
The firm, which wants to be the best seller of electronics in
\nIndonesia, even plans to increase its investment to $113 million
\nin 2005, Kompas quoted Moon as saying.<\/p>\n
LG president Young Ha Kim said that the company expected its
\nTV sales in the country to reach 20,000 units this year, giving
\nthe firm total revenue of $300 million. For next year, the firm
\nhas projected its TV sales to rise to 30,000 units worth $460
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Samsung, which also wants to be the No. 1
\nelectronics producer in Indonesia, puts an additional $20 million
\nin new investments per year.<\/p>\n
Samsung's total sales in the country is expected to reach $300
\nmillion this year, 60 percent higher than last year's $180
\nmillion. Its exports, which account for 75 percent of its
\nproducts in the country, are expected to reach $800 million this
\nyear, according to Samsung marketing director Lee Kang Hyun.<\/p>\n
Currently, Samsung controls 13 percent of the market share for
\nTVs in Indonesia, with total sales estimated at 350,000 units per
\nyear. It is targeting a market share of 20 percent next year.<\/p>\n
Both Samsung and LG underlined the increase in the sales of
\ndigital TVs this year, saying the trend is promising and could
\nbring Indonesia faster into the digital era.<\/p>\n
\"I am optimistic enough to say demand will follow the latest
\ntrends, in which people will soon move away from their old
\nelectronic products to digital ones,\" said Lee.<\/p>\n
He also said that his Korean headquarters had agreed to make
\nIndonesia a production base for digital products, which would be
\nexported to ASEAN countries and Australia.<\/p>\n
In early 2003, the company brought projection TV technology to
\nIndonesia. It now produces approximately 1,500 projection TV sets
\nper month. Starting last June, the company also produced plasma
\nTVs at its Cibitung, Tangerang plant.<\/p>\n
\"Sales of digital products will still contribute about 20
\npercent to this year's total revenue,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Last month, LG opened its fourth TV production line in its
\nTangerang factory. The new $1 million line is dedicated to
\nproducing 12,000 projection TVs per year and is expected to boost
\nLG's market share in Indonesia from 10 percent to 20 percent in
\n2004.<\/p>\n
With the new line, LG is also looking forward to seizing 30
\npercent of the projection TV market in Indonesia by 2005.<\/p>\n
LG expects that in 2006 only 40 percent of the total market in
\nIndonesia will use conventional TVs, while the rest will be using
\nhigh-tech ones such as plasma or liquid crystal display (LCD)
\nTVs.<\/p>\n
\"Digital products are the future of electronics. We have to
\nfollow the trend,\" Sung Khiun, LG marketing director, said,
\nadding the country's digital TV market growth was estimated to
\ngrow by 50 percent per year.<\/p>\n
Both LG and Samsung admitted that their move to introduce
\ndigital electronic products to Indonesia was a result of the
\ngovernment's decision to cut luxury taxes on electronic products
\nin January this year.<\/p>\n
With sales of digital TVs steadily increasing, the ground in
\nIndonesia has been increasingly fertile for local TV stations to
\ngo digital.<\/p>\n
Digital broadcasting is a new technology that will deliver
\nvivid, theater-like pictures to TV screens. The signals allow
\nmuch larger amounts of information to be relayed. Another feature
\nof digital broadcasting is viewer participation, such as surveys,
\ncontest balloting or educational programs.<\/p>\n
Gufroni Sakaril, Indosiar TV station's spokesman, said that
\nhis station was ready for digital broadcasting, but it had thus
\nfar put the plan on hold due to the small number of digital TVs
\nin the market.<\/p>\n
\"We have the equipment for digital broadcasting, but we still
\nhave to wait for the demand from our audience to go digital,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Gufroni added that when Indosiar first broadcast in 1995, it
\nhad predicted that all TV sets owned by the public would be
\ndigital by year 2000, but as it turned out, three years after
\nthat most TV sets are still analog.<\/p>\n
He added that when most people already have digital TVs at
\nhome, Indosiar would go digital.<\/p>\n
In Japan, digital broadcasting was launched on Dec. 1, but it
\nwould only be available in three cities -- Tokyo, Nagoya and
\nOsaka. The Japanese government has invested approximately $1.6
\nbillion to get the system started.<\/p>\n
The United States has had terrestrial digital broadcasting
\nsince 1998 and other countries such as Britain, Sweden, Australia
\nand South Korea also already have it.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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