GE to hold sourcing fair to seek more competitive local products

JAKARTA (JP): General Electric Indonesia, a subsidiary of the U.S. technology giant General Electric (GE), is seeking to source more products from the country as the monetary crisis has made local products more competitive, the company said yesterday.

GE Indonesia president and chief representative Stuart L. Dean said yesterday the company was ready to cooperate with a larger number of local manufacturers as its "strategic suppliers".

To achieve the goal, the company would conduct a "sourcing fair" on Aug. 11 at the Shangri-La hotel's ballroom. The event will be open to all Indonesian companies interested in becoming its strategic suppliers.

"The fair will allow visitors to meet and talk directly with GE sourcing managers from all over the world and to find more opportunities to be gained from GE's Global Sourcing Program," Dean said.

He noted however GE's potential suppliers would have to meet high quality requirements.

"GE wants to cooperate with any supplier for the long term," Dean said, promising that GE would provide technical assistance to selected suppliers for six months to improve the quality of their products.

The materials GE wants to buy from Indonesia include spare parts for aircraft engines, information system, lighting, medical systems, motors and industrial systems, power systems and transportation systems.

GE has been active in Indonesia since 1950 and currently has seven joint ventures in the country.

GE Technology of Indonesia director Hermien R. Sarengat said GE bought US$70 million worth of spare parts from Indonesia last year, and the company hoped to double that purchase this year.

She said the rupiah's sharp depreciation against the dollar, more than 80 percent in the last year, should have increased the competitiveness of Indonesian products on the world's market due to their low price.

But, many local manufacturers had failed to benefit from the sharp fall of the rupiah because they had quoted too high prices for their products, making foreign buyers reluctant to purchase their goods, she said.

In addition, many of them were still using imported materials for their products which made them less competitive.

She suggested local manufacturers use scraps rather than imported raw materials to increase their competitiveness.

"Indonesia has a lot of scraps which can be used as raw materials," Hermien said. (jsk)