Urges To Buy Domestic Products, Jokowi: It's Useless For E-Catalog To Watch Only!

President Jokowi (photo: Doc.antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the number of domestic products that entered the e-catalog system had increased, from the original only 50 thousand to 3.4 million. Even so, he considered that this was not enough.

"Everyone look at it e-catalog, buy it. It's useless for us to collect it into e-catalog, just watch it, not buy it, for what?" said Jokowi at the opening ceremony of Business Matching Domestic Products in Jakarta, Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

Jokowi stated that his party had asked related institutions to trace the import business of used clothes. According to him, until now several business people have been caught.

"I have ordered to find the right one and many people have met a day or two," he said.

He also reminded again about the government's target of 95 percent of the budget ceiling for the procurement of goods and services for local products. "If we can do this, all of our MSMEs will live and develop, don't go far looking for investors if this can work," he said.

It didn't stop there, Jokowi gave a special order for the Ministry of Defense, Police, and TNI. The head of state makes exceptions for state-of-the-art technology products from abroad, such as warplanes that are not yet capable of being produced domestically.

"If it's a weapon, we can already shoot it. Moreover, it's just shoes, why should we buy it from outside?" he said.

The order to use local products is also something Jokowi always reminds of at various events. "As far as I remember, I've been talking about the use of domestic products for the fourth time," he explained.

Previously, the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) continued to actively socialize Regulation of the Minister of Industry Number 46 of 2022 concerning Provisions and Procedures for Calculating Domestic Component Level Values (TKDN) for Small Industries.

This effort is also in order to encourage increased TKDN certification for small industries (TKDN IK), so that small industry players can participate in the procurement of government goods and services which will lead to optimizing the use of local products.

Some time ago, the Directorate General of Small, Medium and Multifarious Industries (IKMA) held a Technical Socialization and Guidance activity for TKDN Certification Registration for Small Industries in Bekasi, West Java.

The hybrid activity was attended by as many as 300 IKM players who came from Bekasi City and its surroundings offline. The participants who participated online included representatives from the Provincial/Regency/City Industry Office in Java, Bali and Kalimantan, as well as IKM assisted actors in the area.

"To further improve the performance of the industrial sector, it must be supported by efforts to strengthen the quality of domestic products, as well as prepare security instruments in the form of regulations so that domestic products can control the market and meet domestic needs," said IKMA Director General of the Ministry of Industry Reni Yanita in Jakarta, Tuesday, February 28.