JAKARTA - The Indonesian Kretek Employers Community (MPKI) has asked President Prabowo Subianto's government to protect the national kretek industry because it is a strategic sector for the nation's economy.

"The kretek industry as a national strategic sector whose existence is protected by the 1945 Constitution should get real protection from the government," said MPKI's Head of study and advocacy, Agus Surono in Jakarta, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, June 15.

According to him, this is in line with the vision and mission of Astacita President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who want to encourage the nation's independence through food self-sufficiency, improve quality employment opportunities, encourage entrepreneurship for economic equality and poverty eradication.

Related to this, he continued, MPKI provided three recommendations for the government for the protection of the national kretek industry, namely. First, it is necessary to hold together with various stakeholders on an ongoing basis in order to determine the roadmap for the future IHT policy.

"This ROadmap is expected to be a policy design that is intermediate for various existing interests and provides certainty for business actors in the tobacco industry," he said.

Second, rejecting all forms of intervention to the government to access the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Currently, the FCTC clause has affiliated through several government regulations/policies that threaten national sovereignty.

"MPKI rejects all forms of legal products that threaten the sovereignty of tobacco farmers and cloves," he said.

Third, protecting the national kretek industry from all forms of movement and conspiracy from anywhere that seeks to destroy national kretek sovereignty.

"Cretek is one of the original Indonesian cultures (iconic) and is not owned by other countries. As an Indonesian cultural heritage, it is appropriate for us to preserve kretek into a national culture," said Agus Surono.

Meanwhile, MPKI General Chair Homaidi added that Indonesia has strong reasons not to ratify FCTC. First, Indonesia has a big interest in tobacco commodities and tobacco products.

The state relies heavily on this commodity as state revenue. Tobacco product excise (CHT) for state revenues accounts for around 96-97 percent.

"The state income collected from CHT is hundreds of trillions each year, and in 2024 the realization of CHT is IDR 216.9 trillion," he said.

Second, the kretek industry is an industry that provides great benefits for the Indonesian people. This industry has a strategic role both from the workforce and the state revenue side. Even the kretek industry is the only industry that is integrated from upstream to downstream.

The kretek industry absorbs a large enough workforce because it can connect from the input supply sector so that it absorbs labor from its agriculture, processing sector, then the sales sector, namely the traders involved in it. From the workforce, it can absorb more than 6 million people.

"We can imagine how large the number of people involved in the kretek industry sector is and depend on the tobacco products industry sector," he said.


The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)