Strict International Competition In The Furniture Industry, Himki Encourages Indonesia's Increasing Competitiveness

Photo illustration. (Doc. Pexels)

JAKARTA - Competition for the furniture and handicraft industry at the international level is getting tighter, as Vietnam remains strong for this industry as well as Malaysia in penetrating the global market.

Chairman of the Indonesian Furniture and Crafts Industry Association (Himki) Abdul Sobur stated that in the current state of the global economic crisis, it is very important to improve the competitiveness of the national handicraft and furniture industry.

"If we think about future conditions, how important it is to improve the competitiveness of the national furniture and handicraft industry," he said, quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, February 17.

He gave an example of the use of advanced and automated technology used by China as a major producer of furniture and handicraft products in the world, used in Vietnam even now in Malaysia.

According to him, one of the things that must be done to improve the competitiveness of the national furniture and handicraft industry is through the use of advanced technology in this industry.

For this reason, added Abdul Sobur, Himki asked the Ministry of Industry to encourage subsidies in rejuvenation of technology for the furniture and handicraft industry in the country.

"Rejuvenation means we take it to advanced technology. So that there is productivity and standardization," he said.

In this regard, he stated, Himki held a National Working Meeting (Rakernas) on 16-17 February 2024 with the theme "The Importance of Increasing the Competitiveness of the Furniture and Crafts Industry as a Priority Policy to Support the Achievement of Export Targets of 5 billion US dollars".

Meanwhile, Secretary General Himki Maskur Zaenuri added that global market opportunities for furniture and handicraft products are still open due to the rampant development projected to create a fairly large demand for national furniture and handicraft products.

Although the world's economic condition has not yet recovered due to geopolitical conditions, he continued, it turns out that demand for furniture and handicraft products is still growing with the main supplier of China, which currently leads as the largest exporter of world furniture products.

"HIMKI is still trying to penetrate new markets, especially if we pay attention to the decreasing demand for traditional markets (US and Europe), where both regions experience very large inflation," he said.

Maskur emphasized that HIMKI remains optimistic that the furniture and handicraft industries will experience growth, for this reason, his party will mobilize buyers to enter from non-traditional markets such as India, the Middle East because the decline in furniture and handicraft exports occurs in traditional markets, such as America and Europe.

For this reason, he added, HIMKI cooperates with ministries such as the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support expansion to non-traditional markets.