The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) predicts the growth of the textile industry this year will only touch 3 percent, below the Ministry of Industry's target of 5 percent. Indef Executive Director Ahmad Tauhid said there are still several factors holding back the industry's growth in 2022 after last year's contraction for three consecutive quarters. First, there is still uncertainty surrounding the spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19, the impact of which can restrain demand in shopping and trade centers.

"Secondly, it turns out that the trend of imported textile products is fast, even though there are safeguards in place. It turns out that import demand is still relatively high," said Tauhid, Tuesday (11/1/2022).

Last year, the government was known to have issued a security measure import duty (BMTP) or garment safeguard, after in 2020 the same policy was imposed for imported fabric products.

According to Tauhid, the effectiveness of the two safeguards has not been proven effective in restraining the rush of imported goods to the domestic market. What must be strengthened is supervision at ports which are critical points for the entry of imported goods, including illegal ones.

Third, he continued, many textile industries had gone out of business for two years and were unable to resume operations, even when market conditions slowly improved.

"That makes it a bit difficult for the industry to be at 5 percent. It will still be positive, but around 3 percent," he continued.

He continued, the impetus for higher growth for the textile industry is closely related to the process of national economic recovery. If the economy improves significantly, there will be an increase in the demand for textile products in the community, although he projects that this year's recovery will not match the position before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, it is also related to handling the pandemic, especially with the emergence of a new variant of Omicron.

"The game changer is how to defuse this virus as quickly as possible, because the trend is starting to increase, it must be localized, so it doesn't have an impact on economic mobility and people's mobility," he said.