The Ministry Of Industry Supports Furniture Industry To Increase Competitiveness

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Industry continues to support the Indonesian furniture industry to increase its competitiveness and productivity through various policies.

Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita conveyed the Ministry of Industry's support policy, including guaranteeing the supply of raw materials and auxiliary materials, improving the technology and capacity of human resources, tax incentives, developing designs, and facilitating participation in exhibitions.

"This is also to reduce dependence on imported products which will reach 495.7 million US dollars in 2022," said Minister of Industry Agus in his statement in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Saturday, March 11.

Facing challenges and obstacles in the furniture industry, Agus continued, the sub-sector must take advantage of the expansionary domestic market momentum as an opportunity for domestic market control.

Agus revealed that the Ministry of Industry has two strategies in an effort to increase the competitiveness of the furniture industry in the international arena.

First, efforts to transfer the export market affected by the recession to the domestic market. This strategy can be carried out effectively considering that domestic furniture consumers, especially the middle class, continue to grow along with the improvement of the property industry and hospitality business.

This is also supported by the consumption of government spending through the use of products with the Domestic Component Level (TKDN) in accordance with the Program for Increasing the Use of Domestic Products (P3DN). This provides an opportunity for furniture industry players to increase domestic market control.

The next strategy is the expansion of export destinations to non-traditional markets. According to the Minister of Industry, while traditional export destination markets are currently still disrupted due to recession, non-traditional markets have the potential to be managed, for example India and the Middle East region whose growth in the property sector is still relatively stable.

In addition, to support the provision of skilled workers, the Ministry of Industry has printed the best human resources (HR) in the furniture industry through the establishment of the Wood Furniture and Processing Polytechnic in Kendal, Central Java.

Meanwhile, in technology, the Ministry of Industry has implemented and is implementing a restructuring program for the wood processing industry, one of which is for the wood furniture industry.

The output of this program is the company's facilitation in obtaining discounts in the form of reimbursements, part of the purchase price of machinery and/or equipment. In 2023, the Ministry of Industry will again hold the program to further increase the productivity and competitiveness of the furniture industry.

The Director General of Agro Industry at the Ministry of Industry, Putu Juli Ardika, said that the Directorate General (Ditjen) of Agro Industry is aggressively carrying out programs to support the development of the furniture industry.

In terms of developing furniture designs, the Directorate General of Agro Industry facilitates the development program for the design concept of collaboration furniture between furniture designers and industry players. The program participants are familiarly calling it Makers and Designer Connection (MadeCon).

The collaboration produces furniture design works that not only follow trends, but also in accordance with the production capabilities of industry players.

In the IFEX 2023 event, the Directorate General of Agro Industry had the opportunity to fill a booth featuring these collaboration works.

In 2022, the program brings together Eugenio Hendro designers in collaboration with CV Dijawa Abadi, Felix Sidharta with CV Decorus, Bayu Ramadhan with CV Equator Jingga, Cynthia Margareth with PT Kobeks, and Hans Handoko with CV Raisa House Indonesia.

Cynthia Margareth, one of the designers who is a member of MadeCon, conveyed the results obtained from her participation in this collaboration program. One of them is getting the experience of working with furniture industry players.

"Sometimes designers are mostly in the office or meet clients or traveling. However, in this program, we can go to the factory directly, meet the craftsmen, see the point of view of owners and buyers. So there is more new knowledge, new learning, so that the results of his work become one of time," said Cynthia.