The Indonesian Government is planning to ease import procedures to improve the competitiveness of local businesses with regional competitors like Vietnam, which has no import tariff, as opposed to Indonesia’s fees of 5-20 percent.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo instructed the relevant ministries for the same in a limited Cabinet meeting. He said that the import procedures must be simplified for Textile and textile product (TPT) raw materials to lift the burden off businesses

Jokowi said the TPT industry was in need of immediate revitalization to push further industrialization.

He added that many industrialized countries in Asia, like Japan, China and South Korea, started their industrialization efforts by developing the TPT manufacturing industry.

Efforts are thus made to streamline the process of importing raw materials for textile and textile products (TPT) in order to rejuvenate the labor-intensive industry, which has been struggling with fierce global competition.

Data from the Geneva-based International Trade Center show that the value of Indonesia’s apparel and clothing accessories exports declined by almost 4 percent to US$3.3 billion last year from 3.42 billion in 2014.

Thus, the Indonesian exports may get an impetus because of the government’s policy to revitalize the TPT industry