President Joko Widodo (center), Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution (fifth from left) and Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita (fifth from right) pose for a photograph with trade award recipients prior to opening the 32nd Trade Expo Indonesia at ICE in BSD, South Tangerang, Banten, Wednesday (11/10). The trade exhibition involves both domestic and international industry players and will run through Oct. 15.
TANGERANG, KOMPAS — The shift from offline to online trading must be anticipated. This shift, slowly but surely, is starting to change the pattern of global trade, as well as regional and local commerce.
“The shift to the digital era cannot be denied. Instead, it must be embraced and used to boost our trade volume,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Wednesday (11/10) during the Trade Expo Indonesia (TEI) 2017 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition in BSD, Tangerang, Banten.
The national trade expo,themed “Global Partner for Sustainable Resources” and running from Oct. 11-15,is to involve 1,089 companies and is to be visited by 4,500 buyers from 79 countries.
On that occasion, the President asked business players to open access to new markets. Indonesia did not have to rely solely on the conventional markets that have existed through the generations. Indonesian products must be able to enter new markets in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South America.
To enter a new market, we need complete information. In addition, the quality of products must be maintained and deliveries must be punctual.
“Look at what they need. If necessary, we should create new industries at home to fulfill market needs. This must be done quickly to outpace other countries,” Jokowi added.
Based on the Central Statistics Agency, Indonesian exports from January-August reached US$108.79 billion. Of that amount, $98.77 billion was non-oil and gas exports.
At the same occasion, Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said TEI was the government’s effort to promote Indonesia’s superior export products. In a bid to push the country’s export products and to improve its small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the government will improve on design through the Indonesia Design Development Center (IDDC). The government will also form a design development partnership with the Japan Institute of Design Promotion for trend products, home decoration, furniture and handcrafts.
“We are bringing in potential overseas buyers for direct transactions. There will be 33 trade contract agreements worth $223.23 million, or Rp 3.1 trillion, with buyers from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Spain, Singapore, Egypt, Australia, Thailand, India, Brazil, the UK and the US,” Enggartiasto said about the expo.
He added that the TEI 2017 targeted transactions of $1.1 billion, or Rp 14.5 trillion. In TEI 2016, total transactions hit $1.02 billion, or Rp 13.5 trillion.
SOE standardization
Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) cooperatives and SOEs chairman Muhammad Lutfi said state-owned enterprises needed to be export-oriented. However, before that, the SOEs needed to be formalized and needed to maintain their quality and image.
In the next six months, Kadin will turn one million SOEs into formal, not informal, businesses. The move will be made through legalizing the license and standardization of SOE products and registering SOEs with maximum revenues of Rp 4.8 billion per year as corporate taxpayers.
“After the upgrade, SOEs are expected to innovate, access capital loans and enter the export market. At this stage, the standardization of international grade products and quality and quantity sustainability must become the focus,” Lutfi added.
Sagon Bakar business owner Irma Husnul Hotimah said other government facilities were needed to improve the SOEs’ competitiveness, in particular legalization of businesses, easy access to capital and promotional marketing.
“Our focus is on developing the domestic market first. Through TEI, we want to learn about the overseas market,” Irma said.
