Encourage National Economic Growth, Trade Minister For Harbolnas 2022

Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan (Zulhas) launched a National Online Shopping Day (Harbolnas) at the Office of the Ministry of Trade, Jakarta, Thursday, December 8.

Harbolnas 2022, which carries the theme "Local Producer of Meraja, Indonesia Jaya" will last for three days, namely 10 to 11 December 2022 specifically for local product promos.

Meanwhile, on December 12, 2022, the promo will apply to all products.

In his remarks, Zulhas said, Harbolnas was held to encourage the use and trade of domestic products and maintain the level of domestic consumption in order to encourage national economic growth.

"The growth in the distribution of local products is currently very significant. Starting from fashion, handicrafts, especially culinary delights made by micro and small enterprises (UMK) local people have a quality that is also getting better and worthy of being the target of online shopping lovers. Especially with a discount party like the one offered by Harbolnas, it will encourage improvement in consumer purchasing power," said Zulhas.

Zulhas explained that the development of the Indonesian MSME industry, which grew positively, gave confidence that the achievement of the 2022 Harbolnas transaction would be more significant.

The Harbolnas program is a collaboration between the government and digital industry players which aims to keep domestic consumption growing.

Domestic consumption is the main pillar in Indonesia's economic growth, and encourages increased use of domestic products.

According to Zulhas, the government and business actors need to support and share their duties in carrying out roles to encourage public consumption.

The government takes on a role by conducting socialization through various media, while business actors carry out roles to provide various forms of attractive offers such as discounts and free shipping to attract public spending.

There are many participants or merchants who participate in this program. Each Harbolnas 2022 participant is required to implement a basic promo of 30 percent.

Meanwhile, from sponsors, there will be subsidies of up to IDR 25,000 so that consumers can have targeted products by not having to spend too much.

Zulkifli Hasan hopes that the public can take advantage of discount festivals like this in fulfilling their daily needs.

"With the promo discount incentive, either in the form of discounts or cash backs, it can be used not only to buy daily necessities, but also to help the economy of business actors which ultimately has an impact on improving the economy of all Indonesian people," he said.

He added that the implementation of Harbolnas was one of the efforts to maintain consumption levels.

In addition, to encourage national economic growth, one of the efforts made is through efforts to increase public demand and consumption.

So that policies or programs are needed that can encourage public consumption and increase the trade in domestic products.

"We hope this program can run smoothly and can provide benefits for businesses in the field of electronic commerce (e-commerce), especially micro and small businesses in increasing business scale and utilizing e-commerce to market their products more efficiently with global reach," he added.

Zulkifli Hasan also emphasized the importance of maintaining household consumption as the main driver of economic growth.

According to him, household consumption as the main driver of economic growth needs to be maintained, one of which is by prioritizing and utilizing the digital economy.

"Digital economy is also one of the mitigation methods to withstand the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy," he explained.

Peran sektor perdagangan di dalam perekonomian, lanjut Zulkifli Hasan, adalah menjaga agar konsumsi tetap meningkat dan menjaga neraca perdagangan tetap surplus.

"The Ministry of Trade's policy is to stabilize prices, strengthen domestic markets, and increase exports to ensure that the wheels of production continue to run," Zulhas explained.

Zulhas explained, the results of the Harbolnas implementation since 2018-2021 show that the number of transactions continues to increase.

In 2021, Harbolnas will be able to record transactions of IDR 18.1 trillion, an increase of 56 percent from the previous year.

Consumption of local products at the Harbolnas event also shows an increasing number.

Harbolnas 2021 was able to record consumption of local products of IDR 8.5 trillion, an increase of almost 40 percent from the previous year.

"I appreciate the idEA and Trade Business Actors through the Electronic System (PMSE) involved in this year's Harbolnas event, which has consistently supported the development of the Indonesian PMSE ecosystem by providing space for domestic products and business actors at every Harbolnas event. I hope that Harbolnas can continue to increase domestic consumption, especially the consumption of domestically made products," concluded Zulhas.