Medicine producers' association optimistic about AFTA
Medicine producers' association optimistic about AFTA
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Facing the full implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement
(AFTA) in a few years, the country's pharmaceutical industry is
upbeat it can play a dominant role in the massive regional
market.
The chairman of the Indonesian Pharmaceutical Association (GP
Farmasi Indonesia), Anthony C. Sunarjo, told The Jakarta Post
over the weekend that some 200 pharmaceutical companies operating
in the country were ready to compete under AFTA and tap a bigger
slice of the regional market.
"We have more companies than the other respective ASEAN
countries and we have more experience in operating in a big
market," he said.
AFTA requires the six original ASEAN member countries --
Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand -- to eliminate all import duties on their products by
2010. The other four ASEAN countries -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar
and Vietnam -- will be required to eliminate import duties by
2015.
Anthony said AFTA would offer the Indonesian pharmaceutical
industry wider access to the ASEAN market of some 600 million
people and annual pharmaceutical sales revenue of about US$6
billion.
Indonesia alone has a market of 220 million people and about
$2 billion in annual pharmaceutical sales.
This year, GP Farmasi Indonesia projects a 13 percent increase
in medicine sales from last year's $2 billion, of which 5 percent
came from exports.
The association's head of organization and regional
development, Kai Arief Iman Selomulya, however warned that AFTA
also could pose a threat to local companies in view of the
tougher competition from pharmaceutical firms in the region.
"For example, Malaysian pharmaceutical companies will be lured
by the huge market in Indonesia, a market 10 times bigger than
their own," he said.
GP Farmasi plans to organize a series of seminars to encourage
the country's drug companies to improve their production quality
and meet common standards.
"AFTA requires harmonization, such as the unification of
standards in medicine production," Anthony said.
He said such harmonization would help create a business
climate in which companies in the region would be encouraged to
compete in the same market, not only in terms of aggressive
advertising but also in quality. (006)