The Game of Textiles

Nov 08, 2019

In recent years, products with ‘Made in China’ tags has earned the reputation of being low-quality goods made by cheap labor. While Indonesian fashion consumers may deter this by choosing products made locally, the harsh truth is that, in the end, local clothing goods are still *produced* with Made-in-China textile. This is not due to a lacking Indonesian textile industry, in contrary, the industry has enjoyed a gross domestic product sector growth of 8.73% in 2018. The culprit lies in excessive textile imports combined with incentives for domestic textile producers to export most of its productions.

In 2017, the government published a decree allowing licensed general importers to import raw materials, such as textile. Previously, the import of raw materials was limited to licensed producers. The decree resulted in an increase of imported textiles from 291.15 tonnes in 2017 to 413.18 tonnes in 2018. Although recently the decree has been revised, critics mentions the existence of loopholes allowing general importers to import through the Bounded Logistics Center (Pusat Logistik Berikat).

Without strong regulations on imports of textiles, Indonesian clothing producers will forever be partly local, and partly foreign. Living in a now fully globalized world may never break the influence other countries has on us, but Indonesia must also be able to stand on its own to create proudly 100% ‘Made in Indonesia’ goods, and compete with other nations.

Source: [Sri Mulyani Beberkan Problem Industri Tekstil Selain Impor](https://www.cnnindonesia.com/ekonomi/20191005084909-532-436921/sri-mulyani-beberkan-problem-industri-tekstil-selain-impor)

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