TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The national textile industry has been experiencing a constant decline for the past five years. Data collected by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) revealed that textile export value, which reaches up to US$13.17 billion in 2011, had decreased to US$12.23 billion in 2015. On the contrary, textile products import continues to experience an increase from US$6.52 billion in 2011, to US$6.95 billion in 2015.
In response to the condition, the Textile Technology Institute of the Textile Technology High School Alumni Association (Association) stated that the government must take steps to synergize the textile industry upstream and downstream sector.
Suryaman Sastomi, Chairman of the Association said that the government's effort in providing investment incentives had only managed to attract certain types of investors, which can pull out of the country at any given time.
"The textile export plan had only enjoyed by a couple of brokers and tailors, not all businesses in the textile industry," Suryaman said on Wednesday, April 27, 2016.
Suryaman asserted that in the past couple of years, local businesses in the textile industry had only prioritize their own interest and refused to join hands to compete with foreign competitors.
"Apparently, our spirit of nationalism has fade away. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the textile industry reached its glory by optimizing domestic processing capacity," Suryaman said.
Therefore, Suryaman urged local textile businesses to switch from using imported raw materials to using domestically produced raw materials.
