After interpreting one year of the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic as a momentum for economic revival, Jemmy Kartiwa Sastraatmadja, Chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API), was present as one of the speakers in the National Webinar entitled HEALTHY INDONESIA and FORWARD: Post-Pandemic Economic Awakening which was held by PARA Syndicate on 10 March 2021.

In his presentation, Jemmy said that the Textile and Textile Product Industry (TPT) during the pandemic was one of the manufacturing industry sectors that was hard hit even though this industry had a long upstream-downstream range and was able to absorb a lot of labor and was labor intensive.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to BPS records, the textile and apparel manufacturing industry, which in the third quarter of 2019 recorded the highest growth of 15.08%, must experience a downturn.

In fact, the textile and apparel industry was previously predicted to be one of the five manufacturing sectors whose development was prioritized, especially in readiness to enter the industrial era 4.0.

He continued, to support the revival of the textile industry, it is unfortunate that there are still major obstacles that must be faced by many industry players, one of which is the problem of difficulty in accessing capital. This adds to the long line of problems faced after many contract and payment delays, rising raw material prices, volatile exchange rates, logistical transportation difficulties during the pandemic, employee reductions, limiting operating hours, increased shipping costs and many others.

According to Jemmy, for these various problems, incentives and various concessions are needed because the textile industry in the country still has the potential to revive in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and develop again.

"In Q1 and Q2 2020, the textile industry experienced a slowdown in growth caused by the cessation of domestic and foreign trade activities. But in Q3 and Q4 the industry managed to bounce back, as evidenced by an increase in utilization rates, an increase in labor absorption, and an increase in the manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI). However, in QI 2021, there will be another decline in performance due to the implementation of the PPKM Micro policy due to restrictions on retailers' opening hours, thus automatically limiting consumer access, "said Jemmy.

To accelerate recovery, according to Jemmy, it is necessary to relax Micro PPKM, besides that it is important to make investments so that Small and Medium Industries (IKM) are more easily accessible to the community, namely through empowerment and digitization of IKM through synergies between the government, banking institutions and industry players.

For the government, through this digitalization of IKM, they have the opportunity to significantly help empower the community's economy, in the ease of providing controlled working capital, and in increasing tax compliance.

For industry, digitization is very helpful for the absorption of domestic production and to increase the competitiveness of Indonesian textile products abroad.

Meanwhile for banks, through this digitalization, they can also provide working capital that is right on target as well as making IKM bankable, so that they can release IKM from the trap of loan sharks.

Apart from the digitalization program, according to Jemmy, empowerment programs can also be carried out by optimizing the use of non-tariff measures (NTMs). Regarding the existing problems, the government hopes to provide policy assistance through banking financing schemes, concessions and incentives needed as a stimulus to encourage recovery and utilization of the textile industry.