Soeharto asks people to buy local products

Soeharto asks people to buy local products

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto stressed yesterday that the
national economy will end in ruins if Indonesians buy foreign
products over local ones when trade in the Asia-Pacific is
liberalized in 2020.

"If this happens it will be disastrous for the economy because
locally made products will not sell well," Soeharto said in an
unprepared speech to open the People's Market at the National
Monument (Monas) compound in Central Jakarta.

He said in the long run that this would also adversely affect
national resilience.

"I warn businessmen not to exacerbate the situation by
importing the goods that we already produce at home. Especially
if they do it through illicit smuggling activities," the
President said to an applauding audience.

Among the officials in attendance were Coordinating Minister
for Production and Distribution Hartarto, Minister of
Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya,
Minister of Social Services Inten Suweno and Minister of Health
Sujudi.

The People's Market is sponsored by the Arif Rachman Hakim
Exponents '66 group in cooperation with the cooperatives
department and several business tycoons. The main objective of
the market is to provide quality goods and merchandise at
affordable prices in the run-up to the Idul Fitri festivities.

Most members of the group are former student activists who
joined forces to topple President Sukarno in an uprising in 1966
which eventually helped Soeharto rise to power. Several members
of the group are now ministers, including Minister of Finance
Mar'ie Muhammad and State Minister of Public Housing Akbar
Tanjung.

Goods produced by Asia-Pacific countries will freely enter the
Indonesian market in 2020. This was one of the major decisions
made at the conclusion of the APEC (Asian and Pacific Economic
Cooperation) conference held in Bogor, West Java, in November
1994.

To cope with the flow of foreign-made products, Soeharto
called on the public to make a nationalistic choice and buy local
on a regular basis.

"As a matter of fact, now the quality of our home-made goods
is by no means inferior to foreign products," the head of state
said.

Soeharto even suggested ways of encouraging people to buy
domestic products.

"The marketing lines and procedures from producers and
consumers should be simplified and shortened. People should set
up cooperatives which can directly purchase goods from factories
and sell them immediately to consumers," he said. "In the
meantime the cooperatives should establish small supermarkets
that cater to the needs of the little people.

Soeharto said if the marketing line remains long and
complicated like it is now, efforts to encourage people to buy
local products would be in vain.

The President urged producers to continue improving the
quality of their goods and to set reasonable prices.

Soeharto also asked the proprietors with stalls at the market,
which will remain open until Feb. 16, not to limit the number of
goods being sold.

The President then took a stroll to inspect the market. He was
accompanied by Sudwikatmono, William Suryajaya, Eka Tjipta
Widjaya, Ciputra, Sofyan Wanandi and Mintardjo Halim, all of whom
are among the tycoons who signed a declaration in Bali last year
to aid small-scale entrepreneurs and cooperatives. The Bali
Declaration, as it is known, is one of the government's efforts
to narrow the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the
country. (bas)