Jokowi Surprised That Brick And Sand Need SNI: What Is Mandatory When It Comes To Safety, Our Logic Sometimes Crashes

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA – President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is confused by the rules and systems developed by his subordinates. One of the concerns of the Head of State is related to mandatory products labeled with the Indonesian National Standard or SNI.

According to the President, rules and regulations should be made to support productive and better economic activities. However, according to him, the SNI policy can cause problems because it makes it difficult for some business actors to register their products because they do not meet the intended criteria.

"With the current SNI requirements, it is still difficult for many items to enter the e-catalog, such as bricks, sand, snacks and others, so the number is limited," he said in a forum entitled Proud Movement Program Made in Indonesia (BBI) quoted Wednesday, May 25.

The President added, in the midst of the current digitalization era, it is important to make it easier for business actors to develop their businesses, including participating in government procurement programs through e-catalogs.

"SNI is now not mandatory. Now what is mandatory is only items related to safety that must be SNI. Examples of helmets must be SNI, SNI cables. But if the bricks are cooked, ask for SNI. When can I enter the e-catalog? Impossible. Our logic is that sometimes we crash, we ask for SNI for stones, SNI for sand, SNI for bricks," he said.

The President then asked the Head of the Government Goods/Services Procurement Policy Institute (LKPP), to simplify the SNI process so that MSMEs could more easily enter their products into the e-catalog.

To note, currently there are 340,000 products with a target of more than one million products that have entered the e-catalog by the end of the year.

"I convey to the head of LKPP, don't complicate things like before. SNI is not mandatory, in the past it was mandatory. Now it's not mandatory. Now what is required is only items related to safety, it must be SNI," he said.

However, the President warned that the goods included in the e-catalog must be truly local products, not only local brands but actually imported goods.

“Many imports and branded aggregator models in e-catalogs. This is to be avoided, the local case inside is imported, be careful with this. If we can do this and we will open up huge job opportunities because hundreds of trillions of goods and services spending can boost our economy, that's for sure," concluded President Jokowi.