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)