Political parties urged to use local fabrics

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Synthetic Fiber Makers Association (APSyFI) urged the country's political parties to use local textiles in their election campaign activities to help the ailing local industry.

The association said that it would be ironic if the political parties chose imported products while they vowed to improve the country's prosperity in their campaigns.

"If our future leaders don't care about improving domestic industries, then how can we pin our hopes on them?" lamented APSyFI secretary-general Kustarjono Projolalito, pointing at one major political party's plan to buy 37 million imported T-shirts from China for the election campaign.

With an expected 20 percent decline in this year's domestic textile production, the upcoming election campaign would be a big opportunity to boost the overall textile industry.

"If the 24 political parties are aware enough to use domestic fabrics to support their campaigns, many upstream and downstream industries would be able to get their ball rolling again," asserted Kustarjono.

He further explained that synthetic fiber is used for thread production. The thread is then used by knitting mills to produce fabrics, which would in turn be used by the garment industry to produce apparel.

According to the calculation by the association, the political parties will need a total of about eight million square meters of fabric for banners and flags, and around 240 million or 20 million dozens T-shirts for their supporters.

Kustarjono estimated that all these products would require about 24,800 tons of synthetic fiber, equal to one-and-a-half months of production of the country's synthetic fiber companies.

He admitted that domestic fabrics are less competitive than imported products. With the domestic T-shirt price at between Rp 23,000 and Rp 24,000 per dozen, buyers would shift their preference to China's products at only Rp 18,000 per dozen.

He said that the robust growth of China's fabric producers was a result of strong support from the government, which had provided a conducive atmosphere for the industry.

Among China's favorable policies is the low electricity rate of only 4 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (KWH), compared to about 7 cents per KWH in Indonesia. The government of China also provides textile exporters with a foreign exchange incentive.

Kustarjono also expressed deep concern over the rampant practice of smuggling fabrics into the country, pointing to poor law enforcement here.

According to Kustarjono, APSyFI has proposed the issuance of a labeling regulation for domestic garments to the Ministry of Industry and Trade in a bid to lessen fabric smuggling.

APSyFI has estimated that this year's production capacity would increase from last year's 1,505,305 tons to 1,528,494 tons.

However, Kustarjono said that the target would be hard to attain since one of its 18 members had stopped production this year as a result of cash flow problems.