Textile center exports training skills

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post/Bogor

The International Garment Training Center (IGTC) in Bogor, West Java, has agreed to help develop a similar training facility in Honduras and Vietnam.

The center's training programs, which focus on marketing and merchandising, quality assurance and production supervision, would be applied in the two latter countries.

"Training programs in the garment sector are very important to deal with (rising) competition ahead," said Till Freyer of the German Garment Training Center foundation, a founder of the IGTC, over the weekend.

"A training center like this so far exists only in Indonesia," he added, saying that the aim of the center was to provide training for young people so they could acquire the skills needed by the industry.

The IGTC is currently running a training session for trainers from Honduras and Vietnam. The two-week program started on Aug. 9.

The textile and garment industry is set to face tougher competition in the near future, especially as the global textile quota system will be terminated early next year, as required by the World Trade Organization. The quota system has allowed less efficient producers to avoid direct competition with more efficient firms in exporting their products, particularly to the U.S., Canada and Europe, as long as they have an export quota.

Textiles and garments were once one of Indonesia's main non- oil and gas export products. However, fears now exist that many local firms would face difficulties in competing with more efficient products, particularly from China, as companies here struggle with rising labor costs and have yet to replace old plant and machinery.