GOVT ADVISED TO REDUCE BARRIERS IN FACE OF ACFTA

Jakarta, Jan 10 (ANTARA) - University of Indonesia' economic analyst Ninasapti Triaswati has asked the government to cut industrial production barriers so that local industries would be able to compete with Chinese products in the free trade area.

"The government should have strong willingness to reduce production barriers of national industries so that their products would be able to compete in the local market with those coming from China," she said here on Saturday.

Triaswati made the remarks in connection with the implementation of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACTFA) as of January 2010.

She said that the lack of infrastructures --such as roads and electricity-- and illegal levies were among production barriers that raised production costs and should be reduced to face the free trade area.

The UI economic analyst said that production barriers of national industries should have been reduced since the beginning of the signing by the government of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area in 2002.

"Over the past eight years, the government should have accelerated the development of infrastructures and other facilities such as electricity," she said.

However, in the runup to the implementation of the free trade area agreement, the government had not yet prepared the facilities well so that investors in several industrial sectors became panic in the face of the ACFTA, she said.