I

ndonesia needs to set up special authorities to help develop designs for its export products to boost their competitiveness in the global market, a prominent Japanese designer says.

Yoshinobu Tanaka, a design expert with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said Thursday that the much-needed authorities should be in the form of a design promotion committee and a national design center.

Both offices would play a key role in advising the government on design, synchronizing design-related programs in scattered agencies and implementing government design policies.

'€œThe most basic thing to do would be to nurture an interest in design in Indonesia,'€ he said during a design seminar hosted by the Trade Ministry and JICA.

Tanaka discussed how Japan began underlining the importance of design in its export products by kicking off a product selection process called '€œGood Design'€ and establishing a special export promotion committee for its handicrafts in 1957.

The country also launched a series of design campaigns with the establishment of the Japan Design House and actively took part in international exhibitions to build a positive image for Japan'€™s product designs. It then set up seven regional design committees nationwide.

As Japan aimed to boost exports, in 1969 the Japanese government established the Japan Industry Design Promotion Organization to carry out design selection, communicate with overseas design networks and manage exhibitions '€” all of which helped Japanese export products gain prominence globally.

Indonesia still lags behind its Asian peers, namely Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Taiwan and South Korea, in setting up such authorities to develop designs for their key export products.

The now defunct national design center, which was incorporated with the Industry Ministry, halted its operations for unknown reasons. The Trade Ministry'€™s export product development director, Sulistyawati, acknowledged that the creation of great designs was essential to boosting the competitive edge of Indonesian products overseas, thereby giving them added-value.

'€œExcellent design is one of the drivers to win the competition in the global market. We are committed to enhancing our competitiveness to the level required by our buyers as well as to diversify our products,'€ she said during the seminar.

Despite this awareness, the distribution of product designs is still difficult, notably among small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The ministry has launched a set of special programs to facilitate SMEs that manufacture goods for export, including the establishment of a designer database and providing a design facilitation service as well as designer dispatch service.

In 2012 for instance, the ministry, in collaboration with JICA, initiated a designer dispatch service pilot project in Cirebon, West Java. The project, which has been extended to another 13 regions, assists small and medium export producers in developing new product prototypes displayed in trade expos. Sulistyawati further said that next year, the Trade Ministry would focus on the development of designs for furniture and home decor, considered to be among the 10 main non-oil and gas export products.

As of August, exports of furniture, along with pulp and paper, totaled US$6.13 billion, representing
6.34 percent of overall non-oil and gas exports.