The achievement of the Ministry of Industry's import substitution program until the end of 2021 is still below the target of 22 percent. Plt. The Director General of the Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Textile Industries (IKFT) at the Ministry of Industry, Ignatius Warsito, said his party would recalculate achievements and performance to achieve the 35 percent import substitution target by the end of 2022. The industrial sector under the Directorate General of IKFT, namely upstream chemicals, downstream chemicals, non-metallic minerals, and textiles, contributes 60 percent to the total import substitution program which is estimated to save IDR 152 trillion by the end of this year.

Of the four sectors, only textiles achieved import substitution close to last year's target of 18.5 percent.

"In 2021 our target is 22 percent, but it's not that much. Of the four sectors, only textiles are positive, the others are negative. That's why we want to try to consolidate for the end of the year, there are only three quarters left," said Warsito, Monday (7/3/). 2022).

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the sub-sectors with the highest dependence on imported raw materials, amounting to 95 percent. This can not be separated from the drug raw material industry (BBO) which is not yet strong in the country.

Warsito continued that from several consolidation efforts, the most focused on reducing imports are downstream products.

Meanwhile, at the end of 2021, the Minister of Industry, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, had revealed that the achievement of import substitution in the January-August 2021 period for all sectors was still at 7 percent.

The import substitution target of 35 percent is set on a 2019 basis, where the value reaches Rp. 343 trillion and is targeted to decrease by Rp. 152 trillion by the end of this year.

According to Warsito, the import substitution program does not only focus on reducing imports, but also deepening the industrial structure in the midst of external factors that pose challenges to the independence of domestic manufacturers.

So that what is also encouraged from this program is the incoming investment for deepening the industrial structure, which also has an impact on employment.

"At the same time, to ensure that 35 percent import substitution is supported by other instruments such as mandatory SNI standards and the application of several trading tools, limited restrictions, so as to inhibit downstream products that have been produced domestically," he explained.