Prepare to compete

Among our non-oil and gas export commodities, textiles and textile products rank first, having reached a value of more than US$6 billion in 1993. The plans call for raising that figure to $12 billion to $13 billion a year during the sixth five-year development period.

Considering that the export of textile products has far outstripped that of plywood -- which stood at about $3.7 billion in 1993 -- there is plenty of reason for President Soeharto to call on businessmen who are members of the Indonesian Textiles Association to spur their exports, whose rate of growth is showing a decline this year.

One of the reasons for this slowing down is the emergence of new garment producers such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. This has led to the speculation that at some time in the future Indonesia will be forced to relinquish its supremacy in textile exports, as the case with South Korea and Taiwan. On the other hand there are those who argue that Germany and Italy, although industrially advanced, are still exporting textiles on a large scale. Therefore, the important thing is for us to continually raise our competitive advantage by raising the standard of our technology and human resources, and also by restructuring the managerial aspects of our national textile industries.

The simplification of the management of our textile industries -- and also that of other leading sectors of the future -- is something that can no longer be delayed. The coming into effect of GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and the formation of the WTO (World Trade Organization) in 1995, as well as the existence of the Bogor Declaration which will establish free trade in the Asia-Pacific region by 2020, demands that we utilize the coming 25-year time span as best as we can to increase our efficiency.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta