RI's Textile Product Exports Expected To Increase

Jakarta, April 15 (Antara) - The Indonesian Association of Textile Producers (API) has set the target for textile and textile product exports 2014 at US$13.3 billion, a 5 percent increase from last year. "Exports will increase from US$600 million to US$13.3 billion in 2014. The target of 5 percent increase is not pompous. Hopefully, the new government can help achieve it," API Chairman Ade Sudrajat stated here on Monday. The export target can hopefully be achieved following the government`s policy to pave the way for the signing of a trade partnership agreement with the European Union, which is the main market for Indonesian textiles and textile products, besides the US and Japan, he emphasized. As a member of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the US remained the main market for Indonesian textiles and textile products, he explained. Indonesia exported textiles and textile products worth US$4.1 billion to the US last year. Demand for textiles and textile products in the US were expected to recover this year, he commented. "Of course, the US will play a play role. Hopefully, negotiations with the EU (on free trade) will make headway in June," he remarked. He predicted that exports to the EU were expected to increase three folds if the trade partnership, which could reduce import duties, could be realized soon. Germany was one of the EU members, which will become a target for Indonesia`s textile and textile product exports. Exports to Germany reached US$0.61 billion last year, making it the fourth largest market for Indonesian textiles and textile products. Garments led Indonesia`s textile and textile exports last year with US$7.38 billion, followed by yarns with US$2.42 billion, clothes with US$1.80 billion and fiber with US$0.56 billion. Ade predicted that the contributions of the textile and textile product sub-sector to the national exports in 2014 will not be much different from those of last year.