Minister Of Industry Agus: Wise Regulations Are Needed To Support Downstream Sago Processing Industry

Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said, in order to support the downstreaming of the national sago processing industry, a wise regulation is needed.

The reason is, the export value of the Indonesian sago processing industry is far less than that of Malaysia.

Currently, the world's largest sago regent exporter is Malaysia with 15 million US dollars in 2023.

Meanwhile, Indonesia, which is in second place, can only reap an export value of 9 million US dollars in the same year.

"I want us to sit down, think about how we can create the right regulation to encourage or support the sago processing industry to grow faster in Indonesia," said Minister of Industry Agus in his remarks at the Sago Processing Industry National Symposium at the Ministry of Industry Building, Jakarta, Monday, July 29.

On this occasion, Agus also gave an example of how some time ago his party succeeded in proposing a Presidential Regulation (Perpres) regarding the management of plantation commodities such as coconut and cocoa.

"I just want to give one example of how the Ministry of Industry 'has succeeded in boosting', which we need and is able to create wise regulations. This is in the context of kokoa and coconut," he said.

At that time, Agus said, his party saw that downstreaming for kokoa and coconut commodities was still very far from the government's expectations.

He said the industry was growing but the raw materials were very difficult to obtain.

"So, we, who were the fourth largest producer of kokoa in the world, have now dropped to number seven. It opens the eyes of the Ministry of Industry, as well as when we talk to coconut," he said.

According to him, most of the added value lovers or added value from coconut from Indonesia are foreign countries.

"And thank God we were in a limited meeting (Ratas) chaired by the President (Jokowi) at that time proposing that a body be formed specifically to manage coconut and kokoa commodities and approved by the President," he said.

"Even in the technical meeting, not only managing kokoa and coconut, but also all plantation commodities will be managed in one regulation and this Presidential Regulation is now being prepared," he continued.

He hopes that in the future the sago processing industry will also have a wise regulation. So that it can create added value for Indonesia itself.

"This is just an example and I want us to be able to create a wise regulation to create value added and job creation from the sago processing industry," he added.