Minister of Industry Agus Optimistic 2024 Indonesia's Manufacturing Industry Exports Reach USD193.4 Billion

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta, The non-oil and gas processing industry is still a leading sector in contributing to the achievement of national export performance. So far, the contribution of shipments of manufactured products remains the highest, helping to boost Indonesia's economic growth.

"The manufacturing industry has consistently proven to be the biggest contributor in spurring national export performance. Therefore, we continue to be determined to increase the export value of manufactured products, including increasing product diversification, which of course has competitiveness and high added value," said Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita in Jakarta, Thursday (15/2).

The Minister of Industry explained, if the achievement of exports of manufactured products skyrockets, it will strengthen the trade balance so that it can encourage national economic growth. "Therefore, we need an adaptive, responsive, and collaborative strategy that is carried out in an integrated manner. Moreover, to boost exports, Mr. President has formed the Export Enhancement Task Force," he said.

The task force's duties are stipulated in Presidential Decree (Keppres) Number 24 of 2023 concerning the National Export Enhancement Task Force. The task force consists of a Steering Committee chaired by the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, and an Implementation Team.

"The task of the implementation team, among others, is to develop resources and the export industry including increasing productivity and competitiveness, as well as determining strategies to increase the export role of micro, small and medium enterprises by integrating them into the ecosystem of national export providers," Agus explained.

The Ministry of Industry also remains seriously committed to carrying out industrial downstreaming, with the aim of increasing the added value of natural resources in Indonesia so that they become products that have high selling value, both to meet the needs of the domestic and export markets. This industrial downstreaming is in line with the government's determination to ban the export of raw materials.

"Industrial downstreaming is the key to realizing Indonesia as a developed country, which is also in line with the Vision of a Golden Indonesia in 2045. As Mr. President Jokowi said that a country can be said to be a developed country, if other countries have dependence on a product produced by the developed country," he added.

Regarding the export performance of the national manufacturing industry, the Ministry of Industry noted that exports of the manufacturing sector reached USD186.98 billion or contributed 72.24 percent of the total national export value of USD258.82 billion in 2023.

"In the midst of unstable world conditions, our industry remains aggressive in expanding its export markets. This indicates that our manufacturing products have been competitive so that they are recognized by the world," Agus said.

The Minister of Industry emphasized that the realization of manufacturing industry exports during January-December 2023 exceeded the set target, which was previously projected at around USD186.40 billion. "For 2024, we are targeting USD193.4 billion. We are optimistic that it can be achieved," he said.

The accelerated export performance played a major role in shaping the manufacturing industry's trade balance into a surplus of USD17.39 billion in 2023. This means continuing the surplus achievement in 2022.

The five sectors that are the biggest contributors to the achievement of the export value of the national manufacturing industry throughout 2023, namely the basic metal industry of USD42 billion, followed by the food and beverage industry (USD41.69 billion), the metal goods industry, computers, electronic goods, optics, and electrical equipment (USD18.12 billion), the chemical, pharmaceutical and traditional medicine industries (USD17.30 billion), and the transportation equipment industry (USD13.12 billion).

Meanwhile, when viewed from 2019-2022, there is an increasing trend in national non-oil and gas processing industry exports. In 2019, exports of manufactured products reached USD127.38 billion, rising to USD131.09 billion in 2020. Then in 2021, it rose again to USD177.20 billion, and jumped significantly to USD206.06 billion in 2022.

In increasing the diversification of export products, the Ministry of Industry continues to encourage the types of export products produced with high complexity or high added value such as from nickel downstreaming. "The types of new products exported with high complexity are mostly base metals from nickel downstream such as stainless steel ingots and CRC, as well as two-wheeled vehicles. The rest are new products with low complexity such as aluminum oxide, and CPO derivatives," Agus said.