The government is asked to be consistent in seeking to optimize the economic potential of the country's textile industry this year in line with the improving situation after the Covid-19 pandemic.  According to the Executive Director of CORE Indonesia, Mohammad Faisal, the government needs to be consistent in providing various incentives to the textile industry, which must be prioritized because it is included in the priority industry category. "The government already has priority industries and one of them is textiles. The incentives should follow these priorities. Policy consistency from the government is needed," said Faisal, Monday (6/6/2022).

Citing Presidential Decree 74/2022 concerning the National Industrial Policy (KIN), the textile sector in the country is still facing the problem of the high cost of electricity and gas for industry.

On the other hand, the government's consistency is also expected to be seen in the support provided from the trade side.

Faisal said the government must be consistent in implementing safeguards for domestic raw materials, auxiliary materials and textile and apparel products to strengthen supply chain harmonization.

Citing data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) processed by the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), the volume of imported textiles in March 2022 reached 132.15 tons.

Up 7.45 percent compared to the same period the previous year. The volume of textile imports in March 2022 was also higher than in February 2022, with an 11.18 percent increase.

In Presidential Decree No. 74/2022 concerning National Industrial Policy (KIN), there are several raw materials for the upstream textile industry which are still dependent on imports.

Among them, cotton as the main raw material is fully imported, raw material for rayon fiber is dissolving pulp, raw material for polyester fiber is paraxylene and MEG.

BPS also noted that the import value of textile commodities reached US$728.35 million in March 2022. It rose 38.01 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

This value is also higher than the previous month, namely February 2022. BPS recorded a significant increase in the import value of textile commodities on a monthly basis, namely 23.33 percent.