Kadin: Five Strategies To Boost Export 500 Percent

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce  and Industry (Kadin) said there are five strategies to boost the country's export five-fold in 2025-2030  and to reduce dependence on exports of primary commodities.  
    
"Indonesia could increase exports by increasing the number of exporters, diversification of export commodities, expansion of export market, increase in the prices of export commodities through quality improvement and expansion of export ecosystems, Deputy General Chairman of Kadin Benny Soetrisno said in a news conference at the Kadin tower here on Monday.

Benny said exports could be increased by as much as 500 percent in 10-15 years  from an estimated US$150 million in 2016 to US$750 billion in 2025-2030.

Kadin recorded that Indonesia's exports in the first 8 months of the year were valued at US$91.73 billion , down 10.61 percent from the same period last year. The export volume, however, fell only 3.39 percent indicating that the price fall was much steeper.

The country's exports of oil and gas were on the contrary rose 033 percent in that period when the export value fell 33.38 percent that the decline in the export value was caused by the decline in the average price.

Benny  said the country needs to push for the development of its manufacturing  sector to increase the country's exports  and reduce dependence on export of primary commodities.

He said exporters would be the main players in the efforts to meet the growth target of 5090 percent in the coming years, unfortunately in the number of Indonesian exporters has declined as a result of the global economic slump.

Many exporters could survive the tight competition amid the weak demand in the global market, he added.

Therefore, the government needs to encourage an increase in the number of exporters, he said.

For that purpose Kadin organized a National Trade Conference  2016  with a theme "Trade and Export for All" on Tuesday, he said .

The conference is expected to inspire small business players and university graduates to develop ambition to become exporters, he said.

"We need to encourage university graduates to have wider global perception to create an ecosystem that would support export expansion and turn out skilled human resources to work in international companies," he said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Conference Committee  Handito Joewono  said goods and service trade  with e-commerce  could be used to reach the target of boosting exports to meet the 500 percent growth target.

"We see e-commerce is used by many individual exporters. Individuals handle small scale trading in e-commerce system. We want exports by utilizing  e-commerce system," Handito , also a Kadin leader, said.

He said  in the conference a number of agreements would be signed to boost exports of culinary products , products of small industries  and utilization of "e-commerce"  to reach the 500 percent growth target in exports. (WDY)