Industry, govt, consumers to boost product standards

Industry, govt, consumers to boost product standards

Sandy Darmosumarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top government and industry officials, consumer groupings and
scholars gathered on Thursday to endorse the formation of the
Indonesian Standardization Society (MASTAN) in an attempt to
raise public awareness on the need to put more attention on
product standards.

Among the endorsers were State Minister for Technology and
Research Hatta Radjasa, chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Aburizal Bakrie, head of the
National Standardization Agency (BSN) Iman Sudarwo and noted
scholar Nurcholish Madjid.

The society aims at raising public participation in
establishing a competitive national industry which is able to
compete at the regional and international levels.

Additionally, the society members believed that
standardization would contribute positively towards raising
productivity, production efficiency and product quality -- all of
which would components make the country's economy more
competitive.

"Currently there are around 6,000 product standards, however
only around 10 percent are actually implemented," commented
Sunarya, deputy for standards application and accreditation with
the BSN and one of MASTAN founders.

"These standards already exist through BSN's Indonesian
National Standard (SNI), however their implementation lags way
behind," he said.

It is hoped that a law on national standards, which is
currently being drafted, will accelerate the implementation of
the standards.

Meanwhile, Hatta hoped that MASTAN would unite producers,
consumers and scholars in helping the government draft the law.

He stated that efforts to unite the general public to be more
aware of standards is beyond the ability of the government due to
the voluntary nature of abiding by standards.

Iman said that widely applied national standards would help
small companies compete with larger ones. "Large companies rely
on brand image to sell their products, whereas small companies
face difficulties convincing the market to accept their
products."

Aburizal said that "such standards should not necessarily
raise the firms' production cost."

In 2004, the government will implement national standard for
consumer electronic goods including washing machines, electric
irons, electric water pumps, refrigerators and audio/video
products.