Government Seeks to Revive Textile Industry Through Technology Upgrades
The government is encouraging machinery upgrades and the adoption of the latest technology to strengthen the competitiveness of the national textile industry.
These efforts are among the priorities in plans to establish a state-owned textile company, which are currently being coordinated with Danantara.
Industry Minister Muhammad Sarmuji said in Denpasar, Bali, on Saturday that coordination between Danantara and the Ministry of Industry was continuing. He said he could not yet provide further details because the process was still under way.
“The state-owned textile company is being coordinated between Danantara and the Ministry of Industry. We cannot discuss the steps yet because the process is ongoing, but we will focus on strengthening the textile industry,” Sarmuji said while visiting the Denpasar Industrial Training Centre in Bali.
He said one important issue in strengthening the textile industry was the upgrading of machinery and production equipment.
If companies that have ceased production are taken over, their equipment will need to be repaired, and the latest technology may also need to be introduced so they can compete again.
Sarmuji said competition in the global textile industry was intense. Producer countries such as China had an advantage because they were supported by modern, relatively new production machinery.
The planned state-owned textile company is therefore expected not merely to revive struggling businesses, but also to build industrial advantages through technological modernisation and increased production capacity.
“If, for example, we take over a company that has stopped producing, its equipment will of course need to be improved. We may also need to inject the latest technology so that its output gives Indonesia a substantial competitive advantage,” he said.
He added that there was still no firm timetable for establishing the state-owned textile company. However, the government hopes the process can move faster, given the textile industry’s capacity to absorb large numbers of workers.
Sarmuji said Danantara had demonstrated its commitment to providing substantial funding to support the plan to strengthen the industry.
Alongside machinery modernisation, the government is also considering combining the strengths of several textile companies that may be acquired. The strategy is intended to create stronger capacity and competitiveness than if each company operated independently.
“We hope the strengths of several companies can be brought together to create a greater new advantage,” he said.
Through these measures, the Ministry of Industry hopes the national textile industry can increase productivity, improve its competitiveness in global markets and maintain its role as one of Indonesia’s labour-intensive sectors.