Ministry Of Trade Encourages Entrepreneurs To Export Goods And Services

Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry Sambuaga explained that the Ministry of Trade encourages entrepreneurs to export finished goods.

This is in line with the government's decision to gradually reduce exports of raw goods.

In addition, Jerry said, the government also encourages exports in the form of services, such as opening factories, assembly, distribution, and product services.

This was conveyed by Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry when witnessing the signing of a cooperation contract between PT Terang Dunia Internusa (United Motors) Indonesia and Atroniq Berhad Malaysia at the Pullman Thamrin Hotel.

"Exporting finished or added value products is a necessity. As directed by President Joko Widodo, exports of commodities or raw goods will be gradually reduced. We should appreciate the cooperation between United Motors and Atroniq which is a manifestation of Hippindo's concrete action after the ASEAN 2023 Summit which was completed last week," he said in an official statement, written Tuesday, September 12.

Deputy Minister of Trade Jerry believes that the rate of consumer spending in Malaysia is projected to continue to increase with a trend of 8.21 percent.

This is directly proportional to the projected retail sales trend of 5.32 percent.

For the food services sector, continued Jerry, the largest market share is controlled by full service restaurants and is followed by cafes/bar.

Meanwhile, for the Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) sector or daily necessities, the largest market share is in beauty and snacks products.

The market share of the fashion sector is dominated by women and men's clothing products.

In Malaysia, the retail service industry is one of the sectors that provides the largest contribution to Malaysian gross domestic product (GDP) which is dominated by food and beverage products.

Some of Malaysia's top retail companies include the BIG Store, 7-Eleven, MJ Dept Store, Tesco, and AEON.

Retail is a trade driving sector whose derivatives will be to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). MSMEs so far have 60.000 percent confidence in Indonesia's GDP and 97 percent in the employment sector," he said.

"The Ministry of Trade also has 46 trade representatives spread throughout the world, including in Malaysia who are assigned to help and facilitate exports, imports, as well as exchanges of goods and services," he continued.

Based on Euromonitore data, Indonesia's retail number is 3.98 million in 2022. There are more than 41,000 retail stores, 1,500 supermarkets, and 298 units of hypermarket type.

In terms of sales, retail sales reached IDR 1,526.2 trillion, an increase of 8.6 percent in 2022.

This shows that the Indonesian retail industry is still showing an increase and has the potential for exports.

Jerry also revealed that the ASEAN market is a potential market. Based on ASEAN macro data, it has a population of 672 million people and is projected to increase by 2030, the number of workforces in ASEAN by 40 million.

"In terms of economy, economic growth in ASEAN in 2022 will reach 5.6 percent with total GDP reaching 3.62 trillion US dollars. This shows that the ASEAN economy is still quite stable. Cont.000si exports of ASEAN countries also reached 8.39 percent of the total world's exports which show that ASEAN is a strategic market," explained Jerry.

Indonesia's economic growth, said Jerry, remains high amid the slowdown in the global economy.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that Indonesia's economic growth in the second quarter of 2023 was recorded at 5.17 percent (yoy) or an increase from growth in the previous quarter of 5.04 percent (yoy).

Throughout 2023, Indonesia's economy is estimated to grow to reach the range of 4.5-5.3 percent.

In terms of exports, Indonesia's trade balance in July 2023 will continue to follow the surplus trend.

In July 2023, there was a surplus of 1.31 billion US dollars with an export value of Indonesia reaching 20.88 billion US dollars, an increase of 1.36 percent compared to June 2023 (mom).

Meanwhile, Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports in July 2023 showed an increase in most major trading partner countries.

Indonesia's largest increase in non-oil and gas exports on a monthly basis (mom) occurred in Qatar, which rose 78.14 percent, Poland rose 50.27 percent, Hong Kong rose 21.77 percent, Mexico rose 17.91 percent, and the United Arab Emirates rose 16.67 percent.