The textile and textile product (TPT) industry players hope that the trial of the full opening of the essential sector this time can continue with a comprehensive opening.

Meanwhile, the TPT sector during PPKM was quite difficult with the existing restrictive policies. From upstream to downstream industries, they must comply with regulations that do not allow 100 percent operations. As a result, not a few who choose to violate the rules in order to fulfill orders.

Secretary General of the Indonesian Filament Yarn and Fiber Producers Association (APSyFI) Redma Gita Wirawasta said that recently the Ministry of Industry has opened bids for companies that want to take part in the trial. However, Redma said that until now there has been no further information regarding this matter.

"The hope is that all of them can return to work, there is no need to be picky about the company again because our capacity is also limited, later it will limit the movement of the economy," he said.

According to Redma, currently the upstream textile industry only has 22 factories with only one factory located outside Java-Bali. In addition, Redma also hopes that the full opening of work areas can also be given to the textile support industry.

However, Redma predicts that it will be difficult to leverage performance at the end of this year even though the government has started to test the factory's full opening. The reason is that the government has chosen to focus on saving health but by placing too much emphasis on the economic side.

"Now imports are getting looser. I even feel that if these unrecorded imports can be compared with export performance, we are actually minus a lot," said Redma.

Secretary General of the Indonesian Textile Association (API) Rizal Tanzil Rakhman previously highlighted that the PPKM level 4 policy made manufacturers only allowed to carry out one work shift.

Rizal said that the current condition of the manufacturer is that around 30 percent of the workforce must be laid off without a salary. Not a few also prefer to stop completely with the current policy.

In fact, in industries that are currently meeting export demand, currently they prefer to pay fines for violating work shifts rather than paying penalties for delays in export shipments.

On the other hand, manufacturers have also implemented many strict rules, such as a fine of Rp. 100,000 for employees who are caught wearing masks under the nose to detailed rest and return schedules.

Rizal said that starting in July 2021, industrial utilization had dropped to the level of 50 percent from the previous level of 80 percent.

"The conditions are already very difficult, so we also offer various things to allow it to run normally again. Such as mandatory 90 percent vaccines and self-isolation facilities," said Rizal.