Kadin to promote research

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) will promote the establishment of research and development (R&D) programs in private firms to seek ways to boost the country's industrial exports in the coming years.

Kadin's chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, told reporters after a hearing with Commission VII of the House of Representatives (DPR) here yesterday that last year's decline in the growth of the country's industrial exports had has spurred Kadin to looking for ways of bringing them up.

The government has set a growth target of 17.8 percent per annum for industrial exports in the coming five years.

Aburizal said the country's exports of industrial products during the first 10 months of last fiscal year (April 1993 to January 1994) increased only by 10.65 percent to US$19.38 billion from $17.52 billion in the same period of the previous year.

He said the slower growth was probably caused by an increase in competition due to the emergence new competitors, such as China, Vietnam and India, on the world market.

High invisible costs, low labor productivity and lack of technological mastery may have also caused the decline in industrial exports, he added.

Iman Taufik, Kadin's vice chairman for mines and energy, said the government should help facilitate the establishment of R&D programs in private firms because such programs are very expensive.(02)