Manufacturing Products Continue to Dominate National Export Achievements

Jakarta, INTI – The non-oil and gas processing industry remains the leading sector in contributing to national export performance. So far, the contribution of shipments of manufactured products has remained the highest, thus also driving economic growth in Indonesia.

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

The Minister of Industry explained that if the export of manufactured products continues to skyrocket, it will strengthen the trade balance so that it can drive national economic growth. "Therefore, we need an adaptive, responsive, and collaborative strategy that is carried out in an integrated manner. Moreover, to boost exports, the President has formed a Task Force for Increasing Exports," he said.

The task of the task force is stated in Presidential Decree (Keppres) Number 24 of 2023 concerning the National Export Increase Task Force. This task force consists of a Steering Committee chaired by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, and there is an Implementing Team.

"The tasks of the implementing team include developing export resources and industries, including increasing productivity and competitiveness, and determining a strategy to increase the role of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) exports by integrating them into the national export provider ecosystem," said Agus.

The Ministry of Industry also remains committed to carrying out industrial downstreaming, with the aim of increasing the added value of natural resources in Indonesia to become products with high selling value, both to meet domestic market needs and exports. 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 Indonesia Emas in 2045. As President Jokowi said, a country can be said to be a developed country if other countries have become dependent on a product produced by that developed country," he added.

Regarding the national manufacturing industry export performance, the Ministry of Industry noted that manufacturing sector exports reached USD 186.98 billion or contributed 72.24 percent of the total national export value of USD 258.82 billion in 2023.

"In the midst of an unstable world, our industry is still aggressive in expanding its export market. This signifies that our manufactured products are competitive and have been recognized by the world," said Agus.

The Minister of Industry emphasized that the realization of manufacturing industry exports during January-December 2023 exceeded the target that was previously set, which was previously projected at around USD 186.40 billion. "For 2024, we are targeting USD 193.4 billion. We are optimistic that it can be achieved," he said.

The export performance that has accelerated has played a major role in shaping the manufacturing industry trade balance to a surplus of USD 17.39 billion in 2023. This means continuing the surplus achievement in 2022.

The five sectors that contributed the most to the national manufacturing industry export value throughout 2023 were the basic metal industry at USD 42 billion, followed by the food and beverage industry (USD 41.69 billion), the metal goods industry, computers, electronic goods, optics, and electrical equipment (USD 18.12 billion), the chemical, pharmaceutical and traditional medicine industry (USD 17.30 billion), and the transportation equipment industry (USD 13.12 billion).

Meanwhile, when viewed from 2019-2022, there was an increasing trend in exports of the national non-oil and gas processing industry. In 2019, exports of manufactured products reached USD 127.38 billion, increasing to USD 131.09 billion in 2020. Then in 2021, it rose again to penetrate USD 177.20 billion, and jumped significantly to USD 206.06 billion in 2022.

In increasing product export diversification, the Ministry of Industry continues to encourage the types of exported products that are produced with high complexity or high added value, such as from nickel downstreaming. "New types of products that are exported with high complexity, mostly in the form of basic metals from nickel downstreaming such as stainless steel ingot and CRC, and two-wheeled vehicles. In addition, they are new products with low complexity such as aluminum oxide, and CPO derivatives," said Agus. *Hans