Imports Will Be Restricted, Ministry of Industry Prepares Stimulus for Labor Intensive Industry

BULETIN TEXTILE.COM/ Jakarta – The Ministry of Industry is currently developing a strategy to address labor issues in labor-intensive industries. This is to prevent further layoffs in 2023.

The labor-intensive industries that are under the spotlight of the Ministry of Industry are the textile, footwear and furniture industries. These stimuli include a limited ban on imports, adjustments to post border inspections to become borders, and flexibility in working hours.

“We are preparing the stimulus policy. That is what we ask for relaxation, at least until conditions return to normal,” Agus said.

The Indonesian Employers’ Association or Apindo states that there are three types of industries that will carry out mass layoffs or layoffs in 2023. This is due to a significant decrease in demand from the industrial market. Deputy Chairperson of Apindo, Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, said that the three industries that would carry out the mass layoffs were the textile, footwear and furniture industries. All three are export-oriented labor-intensive industries.

“Definitely there will be layoffs next year, not again,” he said.

Shinta said the three industries have started laying off workers this year. BPJS Ketenagakerjaan noted that there had been layoffs of 919,071 workers who disbursed Old Age Security funds or JHT due to layoffs from January to November 1 2022. According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the export volume of the textile and furniture industry this year has weakened, but the footwear industry has strengthened. Meanwhile, the export value of the three industries is still growing.

Agus is optimistic that the manufacturing industry sector in Indonesia will still be expansive in 2023. This means that productivity is running well to meet the needs of the domestic and export markets.

“We believe that the performance of our manufacturing industry will grow even more in 2023, in line with the various strategic policies being prepared by the government,” he said.

Throughout 2022, the manufacturing industry sector in the country will consistently be at an expansive level. This is reflected in the achievement of the Indonesian Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) with a position above 50 points.

In December 2022, Indonesia’s Manufacturing PMI closed at 50.9 or managed to increase compared to the previous month’s results which touched 50.3. Based on the results of a survey released by S&P Global, Indonesia’s Manufacturing PMI has remained in an expansionary phase for 16 consecutive months since September 2021.

This positive performance shows that the national manufacturing industry is continuously improving and recovering after being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and amidst uncertain global economic conditions due to the threat of a recession.

“Alhamdulillah, the achievements of the Indonesian Manufacturing Index in December 2022 remain expansive. In accordance with the results of the Industrial Confidence Index (IKI) in December 2022 which we previously released, which were both at the level of 50.9 and also increased compared to the previous month,” Agus said.

He said Indonesia’s Manufacturing Index in December 2022 was able to surpass Germany’s Manufacturing PMI (47.4), Japan (48.8), Australia (50.4), Myanmar (42.1), Netherlands (48.6), France ( 47.4), South Korea (48.2), United Kingdom (44.7), United States (46.2), and Eurozone (47.8).

(Red B-Teks/Ly)

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