T

he stagnant reform of bureaucracy at the Industry Ministry and Agriculture and Plantation Ministry contributed to the slow development of Indonesia'€™s leather and footwear industry, a government official said.

The head of the industrial footwear development center at the Industry Ministry, Elisabeth Ratna Utarianingrum, revealed that public service, especially the issuance of factory building permits, cross-department coordination and human resources shortages were three serious problems at the ministry; frequently causing complaints from investors or factory owners.

'€œMany leather tanners and footwear producers have complained about complicated procedures. In addition, many officials pay less attention to investors'€™ difficulties while the ministry is running short of competent officers,'€ she told
The Jakarta Post at the international exhibition and seminar on leather and footwear industry here on Thursday.

Ratna admitted that reform had been launched for nine years but it had yet to touch the lowest echelon government personnel. Many professionals stationed at the leather development center and the footwear development center who have taken post-graduate and PhD programs abroad, were moved to other units or other ministries because the two centers were found to be '€œdry'€, meaning they could abuse their power to make money.

'€œThe placement of incompetent personnel in the two centers '€” professionals such as chemicals, biologists, veterinarians, designers and industry engineers '€” have frequently raised technical and administrative problems to leather tanners and footwear producers,'€ she said.

Customs officers stationed at ports have the authority to classify imported leather '€” wet blue leather and raw '€” while incompetent officers at the cattle affairs unit at the Agriculture and Plantation Ministry required all import leather to undergo examination at the quarantine house. A lengthy stay at the quarantine house affects raw material supply and product delivery.

Indonesia imports 55 percent of its wet blue and raw leather from Australia, the United States and Latin America while local tanners produce 35 million square feet of goat and sheep leather annually '€” or 35 percent of the estimated maximum capacity of 100 million square feet '€” and 2.4 million square feet of cow leather.

Ratna said the Industry Ministry, the Excise and Customs Directorate General and the Cattle Affairs Directorate General at the Agriculture and Plantation Ministry should work together to eliminate all the bureaucratic hurdles to accelerate the leather and footwear industry.

She also called on the government to continue promoting the use of old technology and prevent automation and robot technology in

the labor-intensive leather and footwear industry to help generate more jobs and to help ease unemployment.

Scretary General of the Indonesian Footwear Producers'€™ Association (Aprisindo) Binsar Marpaung said that besides phasing out bureaucratic hurdles, the government should continue promoting the use of semi-automatic technology to help improve the quality of Indonesia'€™s footwear products and enable them to compete with foreign products.

'€œThe bureaucracy reform is

a must and Indonesia has to improve its human resources in the industrial sector on anticipation of the ASEAN economy liberalization (AFTA) in 2015 and the government has to strengthen the industrial sector and improve its products'€™ quality to maintain its domestic market and diversify its foreign markets in the region and Europe,'€ he said.