Ex-IMported Clothing Rampant, Ministry Of Industry Worries About The Impact On Job Creation In Indonesia

JAKARTA - Director General of Small, Medium and Multifarious Industries (IKMA) of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) Reni Yanita said that the trend of threatening used imported clothing could threaten the government's efforts to encourage job creation.

According to Reni, the trend of threatening (purchase of used goods) could be a loophole for rogue importers, if it continues in the future.

"What is certain is that when we are not aware (of) in front of this, this will be the continuity and importers can see this as a loophole in business. Well, the danger will be a multiplier effect for our industry. What if it is labor-intensive, our extraordinary workforce wants to work where," Reni told reporters in Jakarta, Friday, March 18.

In general, Reni assessed that the thrusting of used imported clothing would disrupt industrial utilities. Because, apart from being prohibited, used imported clothes that are cheaper are feared to disrupt the domestic market. Moreover, the momentum ahead of Eid is a momentum to boost sales of clothing.

For small and medium industry players (IKM) themselves, said Reni, thrifting is also very threatening because they can lose competitiveness with domestic product clothes. Especially for IKM, IKM itself is also limited, margins are also small. Well, they can't sell at a more competitive price because their (product) is new," he said.

Until now, Reni admitted that she had not yet obtained data regarding the calculation of losses suffered by IKM due to the trend of buying the used imported clothes.

He also said that the government had regulated the ban on imports of used clothes for a long time. Therefore, Reni continued, currently what needs to be done by ministries/agencies is to continue to increase supervision, especially because Indonesia's geographical condition is an archipelagic country.

"Now it's just a matter of supervision, there are lots of containers, it turns out that the clothes are used, it's also the supervision of us that should be further improved," he said.

In addition to supervision, Reni said there are other things that need to be campaigned for, namely pride in using and loving domestic products.

"Indeed, the homework is supervision, but if we are ourselves, it actually instills how our consumers love and use domestic products," he concluded.