The government will set import duties for importation of garment products. The goal is to stem the invasion of imported garment products into the domestic market, thus triggering an increase in the unemployment rate in the textile and textile product (TPT) industry sector.
Director General of Small, Medium and Miscellaneous Industry (IKMA) of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), Gati Wibawaningsih, emphasized that the government must do something to protect domestic industry. Especially for garments, the Ministry of Industry encourages imports to be closed for specific products. Currently, most imports are from China.
"Tomorrow there is a plenary session. The point is that it has been agreed to be protected, how do you do it through import duties, how much is the proposal we want to do as high as possible, but I won't leak the figure first, so it won't be exciting," said Gati during a working visit a number of IKM Garment centers in Soreang, Bandung Regency, West Java.
Gati stated, the value of imported products (garments) in January-February 2021 reached 1.12 billion US dollars, higher than the achievement in the same period last year (yoy) of 1.05 billion US dollars. Even though the value of the increase is small, the multiplier effect is large because many are unemployed.
"Unemployment has become big. The name of imported goods for garment is very large so it is very disturbing," said Gati.
During the pandemic, continued Gati, the garment industry was really affected. Even today, only 20 percent survive. Even then, only the export ones.
There is no longer a garment industry with large buildings as is often seen. Many are now turning to the plasma core model to make it more efficient. The old way costs a lot of money.
"With the plasma nucleus they don't need to build buildings because they are distributed to houses, they don't need to buy a lot of machines, they don't have to pay for expensive electricity because the electricity is divided between houses," explained Gati.
With this plasma core pattern, more workers are absorbed and their working hours are more flexible. They are also not bound by regulations from the Ministry of Manpower, if they are dismissed, they will receive severance pay.
According to Gati, although many of the large garment industries have switched to plasma nuclei, the market is still there.
The owner of Meflanna-IKM Kerudung for Printing Products, Ivan Maulana, admitted that imported products are annoying. But he is very optimistic about the domestic garment product market.
"The seventh-eighth month of the pandemic, the demand has increased 100 percent. We are optimistic for the future," he concluded
