RI goods higher quality than foreigners': Minister

RI goods higher quality than foreigners': Minister

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Thousands of businesspeople in the textile and food industries
nationwide are expected to participate in the Indonesian Product
Exhibition (PPI) 2004 in May and September in Jakarta and five
other cities.

Minister of Industry and Trade Rini Soewandi said on Monday
that the exhibition was aimed at raising public awareness about
the high quality of Indonesian products, as well as encouraging
people to use local products.

"Our products can now compete with foreign products. As a
matter of fact, many of our products have even higher quality
than the foreign products. We hope the exhibition can boost
commitment to using local products," Rini confidently asserted.

She argued the fact that Indonesia could sell US$50 billion
worth of non-oil and gas products abroad last year showed that
the quality of Indonesian products had been internationally
recognized.

Rini also said that the PPI was intended to give regional
businesspeople the opportunity to promote their products because
many of them complained about the lack of opportunities to
display their products at the national level.

The PPI will be open to the public from May 26 to 28 at the
Jakarta Convention Center in Central Jakarta, while Makassar,
Palembang, Surabaya, Mataram and Samarinda, will host a similar
exhibition in September.

The exhibitions will concentrate on textiles and textile
products as well as food products.

All 32 provinces will be represented in the Jakarta
exhibition, while hundreds of businesspeople from 15 associations
will also take part. The committee will provide around three
thousand booths for them.

The programs in the exhibition will include textiles and
textile product displays, fashion shows, a design contest,
traditional food displays, a cooking contest and seminars on
textile and food.

The Director General of Domestic Trade Affairs, Erni Rifana,
said that the government also hoped that the exhibition could
bring local buyers straight to the producers.

The PPI will be participated in by small, medium and large
scale producers. Special, lower booth fees are provided for the
smaller scale businesses in order to promote their growth.

"We have subsidized small and middle scale participants as
well as the participants from the regions by giving them much
lower prices on the booths," said Erni.