President wants more exports of textiles

President wants more exports of textiles

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto asked yesterday that the Indonesian Textile Association make concerted efforts to increase exports of textiles and textile products, which last year dropped 8.1 percent to US$5.6 billion over the previous year.

"President Soeharto instructed us to find ways to improve our exports," the association's new chairman, Bambamg Yoga Soegomo, told journalists after meeting with Soeharto.

The chairman of the Textile Society, I Made Kembar Kerepun, who accompanied Bambang in yesterday's meeting, said that it would be hard for Indonesia to increase its textile exports because the increase of quotas set by major importing are very minimum.

"It is merely an illusion if we want to increase our textile exports to the United States by 20 percent this year because the annual increase of the quota given to us is only six percent," Kerepun said.

He suggested that the most possible way to increase exports is raising shipments to non-quota countries. "But again, we have to face competitors such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh."

Bambang said his association is asking the government to involve it in the management of quota allocations among Indonesian exporters.

Such quota allocation is now managed by the Ministry of Trade.

"The current system of quota management makes fictitious exports possible. If the government agrees to use our electronic verification visa system, such ill practices will never happen," Bambang said.

Last year, Indonesia was hit by fictitious textile exports which involved a number of companies wanting to get cheap funds from export facilities.(rid)