VP ASKS DEKRANAS TO HAVE REFERENCE FOR QUALITY STANDARDS

Jakarta, March 18 (ANTARA) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla has asked National Handicraft Council (Dekranas) to have a reference for its quality standards.

"With the Trade Ministry, Dekranas should be able to create products of a quality meeting certain standards," the vice president said at a function to open Indonesian handicraft products themed "Bangga Kriya Kreatif Indonesia" here on Wednesday.

On the occasion Kalla said the reference of quality standard was intended to make the products of National Handicraft Council even better.

"With the reference of quality standard, the quality of Dekranas exported products is expected to be much better," the vice president said.

According to the vice president, handicraft products with high artistic value had incomparable prices, because the word "kerajinan" for handicraft stemmed from the word "rajin" (diligent) were only created by diligent people.

"Handicraft products with high inartistic value are the work of diligent people and therefore they will, of course, have high market value," Kalla said.

However, he added that besides having high artistic value, the Dekranas products should also have commercial value to meet the market desire. ***