Textile and Garment Industry in Indonesia: a Chance of a Bright Prospect in 2018

In the past several years, a performance of the Indonesian textile and garment industry was not favourable. Based on data from BPS, the industry only grew by minus 4.79% in 2015 and minus 0.09% in 2016. Entering the first semester of 2017, fortunately, a performance of the industry began to recover, following the increasing demand from the local market and the export market in the USA and European countries. In 2017, the industry could grow by 3.76%.

However, for 2018 PT. Visi Globalindo Data Utama predicts that performance of the Indonesian textile and garment industry will again decrease, namely to only reach 3.33%, or not significantly increase if compared to the year 2017. It is mainly caused by the enormous production cost, which is still becoming the main obstacle faced by the industry in running their operation.

According to Secretary-General of Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia (API), Mr. Ernovian G. Ismy, the industry is still facing the same problems within the last five years. He said that the production and non-production aspects are still main problems faced by the industry to compete in the market. For example, high production cost makes the prices of the national textile and garment products becoming not compete against products from other countries.

In the present time, a performance of the industry is not yet stable, and the supporting factors are not, however, bringing positive impact maximally. Apart from the fact, nevertheless, for the next several years, a performance of the industry is predicted to recover and to increase, either in operational aspect or business investment.